The Doom Crystal
by find-the-lion
Summary: A new raccoon is on the scene, and she already poses some security risk to the Freedom Fighters. But after her first mission, even stranger things start happening. Hopefully I won't change this summary again. Some feedback would be nice though.
1. ALC p1 Five Years Ago

The Doom Crystal: Part 1, A Little Chaos, Section 1

A Sonic the Hedgehog Fanfic by find-the-lion

Disclaimer: I do not own Dr. Robotnik. He is copyrighted by SEGA, DiC productions, and Archie Comics. I promise this is not the only Sonic character who will appear, just the first.

In order of appearance, Silver Moon, Ebony Moon, Birch Loudcry, Katherine Cardinal, Jonathan Moon, Lars the Beaver, and Lara Keene, are all copyrighted June 22, 2005 to myself, as is this story, which is also copyrighted June 22, 2005 to me.

Notes:

I hope there will be fewer of these as the story progresses.

This story takes place in a sort of composite universe incorporating elements mostly from the Archie Sonic comic book, but with some from SatAM, and some from the more recent Sonic games.

While this section is written in third person, all the others following will be written in first person.

I have most of the story already written, but it wasn't originally written in chapter format. It was written in an episode format, with each document being a different episode.

Also some of these episodes are pretty long, therefore, I have decided, that if an episode is longer then 5 pages, it will get broken down into smaller subsets. These will retain the title of the original episode, however, they will be numbered depending on where they are in that particular episode.

Copyright information is displayed individually for each chapter.

Now let's get to the important part, thank you for taking the time to read my work.

The year: 3230

Time of Day: Two hours after sunrise, some time during the summer.

Location: A village on the south west coast of the former kingdom of Acorn.

Silver Moon was looking in her refrigerator. "Rats, we're out of strawberries." She said under her breath. "Jonathan probably thought they'd make a nice midnight snack or something." She smiled to herself. Her husband had been brought up with prepackaged city food for most of his life. It was her own silly fault she had introduced him to garden fresh fruit, that hadn't gone through the processors before landing in the produce isle of the grocery store.

She heard a door creak open down the hall, and then footsteps coming toward the kitchen.

"Good morning Ebby." She said, closing the fridge and turning around.

"Morning mom, where's dad?"

"He's on guard duty."

"Oh." Silver's ten-year-old daughter, Ebony sat down at the kitchen table and started putting butter on a piece of toast.

"Could I ask you to do a favor for me Ebby?"

"Okay."

"Could you go down to the gardens after breakfast and get some more strawberries, I'm afraid I just can't keep them in the house nowadays."

"Sure. Maybe I can get Kat to come with me."

"That would be nice. Just don't eat too many while you're down there."

"I won't." She took a bite out of her toast.

"You did a good job on this loaf mom, it tastes great. What's in it?"

"I found a large spread of wild grain near the gardens. I used it when we cut it back to make some more gardening room"

"Not bad."

"Thanks."

A little while later, Ebony set off with a basket.

She was about half way through South Cliffs when she heard someone calling her name. "Hey Ebby, I've been looking all over for you!" She turned around and saw Birch coming toward her. Birch was a wolf. Despite the fact that they were completely different species (Ebony was a raccoon) they were like brother and sister. Birch had been living in the village as long as Ebony could remember. He was sixteen. He caught up with her and took out a small box. He opened it and Ebony saw a ring nestled in folded up navy colored velvet. It had been made of gold with a blue sapphire set into it.

"Do you think Lara will like it?"

"Sure, she would."

He grinned. "Where are you going this morning?"

"The garden."

"You know, I'd love to come with you, but if I don't show up at the scout tower, your dad won't be too happy. I wouldn't either when it comes to that. Especially if I had been out all night like he was."

"Yeah. I guess I'll see you later."

"You too." He turned in the general direction of the tower and after one last wave, was gone. Ebony continued on her way. The sky was a beautiful forget-me-not blue this morning, there were small birds singing in the trees, and to her, the day could not get much better.

She made her way to the house where her best friend Katherine Cardinal lived. Ebony stepped onto the front porch of her house and knocked on the door. Kat answered it.

"Hi, you want to come pick strawberries with me?" She smiled.

"I would Ebby, but mom wants me to help out around the house today."

"That's all right. I'll save you some."

"Okay, mom would probably like that anyway."

"See you later Kat."

"You too." Ebony left and Kat closed the door. One little blemish on the morning wasn't going to ruin her day. She hummed a tune her dad liked to sing, and went on her way.

These were happy times. Times when Robotnik was little more then a shadow that hung over the grown-ups and teenagers. Ebony never could understand in those times, why her mom or dad looked so worried. Robotnik would never find they're village. Southcliffs was safe in her mind. There was no danger.

Both Jonathan and Silver had watched her growing up, sadly aware that if she made it into adulthood at all, it would be in a world full of hostilities, not the five years of peace in which she had been born. The short peace between the Great War and Robotnik's current reign of terror. And now, the temporary safety that they had enjoyed through remaining in hiding was all about to come to an end.

Jonathan Moon came running back to the village. He had to find the village leader. Lars was walking around the village to wake himself up when Jonathan found him. "Lars, I've got some bad news. SWAT-bots are coming this way." The old beaver's eyes showed concern.

"Thank you Jon. I'll start telling everyone to get to the fall back spot."

"I'll go get Silver and Ebby and meet you back here."

"Good, gather anyone else you can too."

"You got it." He took off for his own house. He almost ran into the door in his hurry, but he stopped himself just in time to be able to open it.

"Jon, what is it?" Silver asked.

"SWAT-bots. Where's Ebby?"

"I sent her, oh my gosh, I sent her out to the garden, I'll go get her right away!"

"You do that, then make for the fall back spot as fast as you can." They both raced outside, just in time to see the first hover unit land. Jonathan grabbed a hunting spear that was leaning on a porch column. Silver paused a moment.

Jonathan saw her stop and turned back. "What are you waiting for, run! Get Ebby!"

She turned and ran for the gardens. She had started too late however, another hovercraft landed in her path. She tried to run around it but it was too late.

"I hoped it would never come to this, but there's no choice. My daughter needs me." She flexed her hands and eight ruby red blades sprang from her fingertips. "FREEDOM!" She yelled and lunged at the SWAT-bots that were issuing in torrents from the hovercraft. Two SWAT-bots were sliced to ribbons. She backed up and lunged again, and again. The third time, one of the SWAT-bots grabbed her. She sliced its head off and backed away, still swiping out at them.

Meanwhile on the front porch of the Cardinal's house, there was trouble brewing. Jonathan and Birch had been cornered there with the Cardinals and Lara. They had been trying to hold off the SWAT-bots while Kat and her mother had tried to get away. It was too late now. They were all trapped like rats.

Surrender biologicals, by order of Robotnik. They droned. Jon still had his spear, and he used it, sending one of the robots to the scrap pile with a quick throw of his hand. Birch was holding a knife, ready to keep on.

"If you do not surrender now, you will suffer the consequences."

"What could be worse then a living death?" Lara growled.

Suddenly a speaker crackled to life and Robotnik's voice was soon heard. "Well young lady, since you put it that way."

"Ahhhhh!" A laser shot from the SWAT-bot that had set up the link.

"Lara!" Birch rushed to her side as she fell, clutching her stomach. He lifted her hand from where it covered the hole and saw the blood pouring out. He quickly put it back. Katherine's eyes were wide, and her mouth was open in a terrible soundless scream.

"You will all come quietly and submit to complete roboticization. Resistance is futile." A SWAT-bot grabbed Birch and, after removing his knife from his hand, dragged him away. In his sorrow he dropped the ring box and it lay there for the rest of the fight. That didn't last very long either. Silver had been taken two minutes before. And those holding the Cardinals house were taken some time afterward.

When all was said and done, the SWAT-bots left the village in ruins.

Ebony had spent the major part of the morning, picking strawberries (and eating them) and now her basket (not to mention her stomach) was quite full. She followed the path back to South Cliffs, pausing to rest in the shelter of the mesa that separated their village from the beach.

She reveled in the sea air and looked across the salt marsh that was left over from a time when the ocean had actually sat here. Sunset Mesa had been an island then.

She stood up again and continued on her way back to the village. The sight that met her eyes caused her to drop her basket. She ran to the first place she could think of. Home.

"Mom? Dad? Are you here?"

No answer. She left the house and began running all over the village calling "Mom? Dad? Birch? Lara? Anybody! Where are you?" She even went to the cave that was supposed to be where they would meet up if there was an attack. No one was there.

"Where is everybody?" She yelled. There was no answer. She walked back into the village, starting to cry. Then suddenly she heard something.

"Ebony? (cough) C-can you h-hear m-me?"

"Lara?" She looked around and saw her lying in front of Katherine's house. She rushed over and knelt down beside her. "Lara! Where is everybody?"

"Gone. There was an attack and they've all been taken to Robotropolis."

"I've gotta get you out of here." "No Ebby." She said sadly. "I'm too heavy for you to lift. I'm afraid you'll have to leave me. Take what you need to survive, and find somewhere safe."

"But you need help!"

"No. (wheeze) I'm going to die Ebby. Even if I could travel, I'd never make it to the next village. There's nothing you or anyone else can do about it. Now go!"

"What about the others?"

"There's nothing you can do about them either, now go!" Ebony stood up and turned away, that was when she noticed the ring box on the ground. Birch's ring. She picked it up.

"Lara?" There was no answer. "Lara?" She turned around. Lara's eyes were no longer open, and she had stopped breathing.

"No! Don't leave me alone! Please! I don't want to be alone! Please, don't be dead! Don't be dead!" She sat back down, sobbing. "Lara."

A few moments later, tears still streaming down her face, she rushed back to her house and started searching for things she might need. Her dad had shown her how to pack to go camping, but never permanently. Blankets there were in the house aplenty, food too, and cooking gear, and a lot of other stuff that might or might not be useless.

She gathered together everything that might help her in the woods. When she was finished, she went into her parents' room and returned with a yellow shoulder bag. She put two folded up blankets into it and thought hard about what to put in next. She could make a shelter if she had to, so a tent wasn't necessary even if she had had one available.

She selected a package of dried meat, the loaf of bread her mom had made, and five apples from the fruit basket. Then, with some guilt (good upbringing), she took her dads hunting knife from it's place on the wall. Not that it would do much good, but to have a weapon with which to protect herself was something.

After one last look at the village that had been her home, she left. She ran away from that place as fast as her legs could carry her.

To Be Continued…


	2. ALC p2 Enter: Sonic

The Doom Crystal: Part 1, A Little Chaos, Section 2

A Sonic the Hedgehog Fanfic by find-the-lion

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog, Princess Sally, Nicole, Bunnie Rabbot, Knuckles the Echidna, Nack the Weasel, or Mighty the Armadillo. Everyone in this list is copyrighted to SEGA, DiC Productions, and Archie Comics.

Ebony Moon and Pepper are copyrighted June 22 2005 to me, as is this story, which is also copyrighted June 22 2005

Notes:

The name at the top of each paragraph is that of the person who is telling that part.

Year: 3235

Time of day: Early evening.

Location: Outskirts of Robotropolis.

Sonic

I had almost made it out of the city. The information run had been a complete success, and I had Nicole sitting in my backpack full of Robotnik's evil schemes to prove it. I felt the wind flying through my quills as I raced through the streets of Robotropolis, the SWAT-bots I'd run into earlier were still somewhere behind me choking on my dust. Everything was way past cool.

I'm sure they were still trying to figure out which way I'd gone when I saw the Great Forest up in front of me and it was only another few seconds before I was under the first tree branches. It turned even darker once I was in the woods because the sun was setting.

Suddenly, there was a flash of light to my left, along with a loud BANG! It sounded like blaster fire so I decided to go see what was going down. When I reached the place where the sound came from, I ducked down behind a rock and took a peek over it. It looked like a campsite. I quickly spotted the girl raccoon, near the campfire. The two SWAT-bots that were on the side of the fire closest to me seemed to have barged in on her while she had been making dinner, and were trying to convince her to return to Robotropolis with them.

She wasn't convinced. The smoking blaster pistol in her hand was proof of that.

"All right, who's next?" She said angrily.

It was then I noticed a third SWAT-bot lying in a pile of rubble where it had tried to rush her. I was really interested now. This kid looked like she could take care of herself. The two SWAT-bots looked at each other.

"Apprehend subject by order of Robotnik." They both rushed her. They were both gone before they had taken three steps. The raccoon rolled her eyes, blew the smoke off the barrel of her weapon and grinned to herself. "Stupid garbage cans! Honestly, won't they ever learn?" She chuckled as though this was funny, but then her expression drooped as she proceeded to put out the campfire and collect her things from where it looked like she had almost finished unpacking them. "It's too bad." She grumbled. "I was hoping to get some sleep tonight."

Huh? Did she know I was here, or was she just talking to herself? She had just picked up a faded yellow shoulder bag when a fourth SWAT-bot appeared out of the trees. The raccoon seemed to be rather preoccupied so now seemed like a good time to make an entrance.

"You are under arrest. You do not have the right to remain..."

I spin-dashed through it before it even knew what had happened. The raccoon turned around and saw the remains of the fourth SWAT-bot and of course, yours truly, leaning against it and quickly realized what had happened.

"Thanks stranger, I guess I owe you one." She returned to packing.

Huh? She didn't recognize me? I would have thought everyone around here knew who I was. "You don't know who I am?" I asked.

The raccoon gave me this funny look. "No, I'm afraid not, now if you'll excuse me, I'd better finish packing up. We'd better move on before they come back." She was now un-pitching the tent she had constructed near the edge of the clearing.

"You haven't even heard of me?" I asked.

"No. I doubt you've ever heard of me either." She didn't even bother looking at me when she said this, as though what she was doing was more important than this conversation.

"Um, no."

"I didn't think so. Sorry to run, but I'd better get out of here before Robotnik decides to chase me again." She had finished gathering her things, and, after shouldering the faded yellow bag that she'd packed everything in, she started walking out of the clearing in a westerly direction.

"Hey! Wait up!" I sped in front of her and stopped, turning to face her.

The raccoon seemed to be thinking about something but she noticed enough to know I hadn't left. "What? You lost or something? Thought I might find you someplace safe? If so, you can come with me. But try to keep up, I have a pretty long stride."

What? How dare she? And here I was about to offer something much better then what she thought she'd get. "Try to keep up? I could outrun you, no sweat! But that's not what I was going to say." I said.

"Really? Go ahead then." The raccoon stopped when she reached me and suddenly seemed to have finally noticed the speed at which I had reached this point.

"Hey! How did you get up here so fast?" She asked slowly.

"Nothing really. But what I was going to say was, I heard you talking to yourself."

The raccoon looked nonplussed. "If you're about to suggest I need help, that one stopped being funny a long time ago. I always talk to myself."

"No that was not what I was going to say." I said impatiently. "What I was going to say was that if you want, I can take you back to Knothole with me."

The raccoon's jaw dropped, and then she started laughing. "Knothole? Ha-ha! That was a good one! They tell that story in every single village outpost I've been to. There's no such thing!" It is a rare thing when Sonic the Hedgehog can't think of a snappy comeback, but this was one of those moments. I was completely at a loss for words. No such thing as Knothole? What do you say to something like that? That's like someone saying a chilidog is poisonous.

The raccoon continued to laugh for a few minutes and then slowly calmed down. She looked as though she was about to continue on her way when suddenly she paused as though something she had thought was funny didn't seem so funny after all. "Wait a second. If you said Knothole... how did you...? Then that makes you…. Gosh, now I got this figured out, you must be Sonic the Hedgehog!"

"Right." I said in a mock condescending voice. "And it took you how long to figure this out?"

The raccoon scuffed her shoe on the ground uncomfortably. "I'm sorry I didn't believe you. But I searched this area up and down for Knothole a couple of years ago when I first heard the rumor and I never found a thing."

By now, I had folded my arms and was tapping my foot. "Well? Are you coming or not?"

"Yes, I think I'll take you up on your offer. It beats trying to find one of my half forgotten campsites in the dark."

"Okay, grab on."

The coon's face went blank. "You mean, onto you?"

"Unless you'd rather walk." I said. The raccoon moved around behind me as though trying to figure out how to grab hold without getting stuck on my quills.

"You know something?" I remarked as she placed her hands on my shoulders, carefully so as to avoid my quills.

"What?"

"I don't even know your name."

"Oh, sorry. My name is Ebony Moon. But you can call me Ebony. What should I call you?"

"Just call me Sonic."

"Okay."

"Now grab onto my shoulders."

"If your sure." She grabbed on.

"Just don't let go." I said and then I took off. It took only a matter of minutes for me to make it to the tree stump. There, I stopped and Ebony let go.

She looked around curiously. "I'm not seeing anything." she said.

"Watch." I pulled on the vine and the top of the stump lifted off, revealing that it was hollowed out. Ebony's eyes widened, but she said nothing.

"You first." I said.

"What?"

"It's a slide. You go first."

"Oh. Okay." She climbed inside the stump, and when she was good and ready, she let go. I jumped in after her and let go of the vine. The stump slammed shut behind us as we slid down the endless hollow tree trunk. We both landed with a thump in the haystack.

Sally and Bunnie were waiting nearby. When they saw the hay fly into the air, they ran over. I crawled out first.

"I got the information you wanted Sally." I reached into my backpack, pulled out Nicole, and handed her to Sally.

"Thanks Sonic." Sally was about to walk back to the central hut when she noticed Ebony crawling out of the haystack. The raccoon stood up, looking around at the village as though evaluating it. As the light was a little better in here then it was out in the forest, I could now tell exactly what this girl looked like. She looked pretty ordinary for a raccoon. She was covered with gray fur from head to toe, with the usual black and white ringed tail for the species and a white chest. Her face was rather pretty, with the mask that all raccoons have over her eyes. I noticed to my surprise, that these were a shade of dark brown, almost dark enough to appear as black as the mask. She wore a pair of light blue high tops with laces of the same color, a pair of white socks, and a pair of regular gloves. Add the yellow shoulder bag, and that was my first good look at Ebony Moon.

"Who's this?" Sally asked.

"Her name's Ebony."

Ebony heard her name mentioned and turned back to the others.

"Hi." Sally said. "I'm Sally."

Bunnie took the cue from Sally and quickly added, "My name is Bunnie."

"Nice to meet you." Ebony turned to Sally.

"I've heard rumors up and down the Great Forest about this place. Tell me, are you Princess Sally by any chance?"

"Yes."

"Your highness. It is an honor to get to meet you." She looked around again. "Real nice setup you have here. From what I can see, you've done all right for yourselves."

Sally smiled. "We've done the best we could. So what can we do for you?"

"She needs somewhere to stay for a while. I found her being ambushed by SWAT-bots a little ways away from here." I said.

"Well, I don't know about a while, but at least for the night." Ebony added.

"We can handle that. Come on." With that, we left the area around the haystack, and started looking for a spot where Ebony could stay.

The Next Day, Early Morning

Knuckles

On the Floating Island, things had been fairly quiet. Nothing had happened for a while. I was sitting in a chair outside my hut, enjoying the quiet. Suddenly, I heard something. A sort of swishing noise. I opened one eye and saw a green rabbit standing in front of my seat.

"Pepper, where've you been all this time?" I opened the other eye and sat up.

"Working. I just stopped by to help out an old friend." The rabbit sat cross-legged in midair in front of me. Normally this would have been impossible, but as long as I've known Pepper she was always finding ways to defy just about any natural law you tried to throw at her.

"Wait a sec, you don't usually show up for no reason." I said, suddenly feeling suspicious.

"Actually, I saw Nack the Weasel carrying explosives toward the Chaos Chamber. I would have stopped him myself, but I'm really in a hurry."

"Then why are you sitting here, you could be stopping him!" I stood up angrily and started toward the Chaos Chamber.

"Because my boss says I'm not allowed to. I'd get over there now, if I were you, but I have other things I'm supposed to be doing. Be careful." And with that, she disappeared again. It had to be one of those days. I ran to the secret passage into the Chaos Chamber, threw it open and went inside. The chaos emeralds were almost in sight when suddenly, an explosion rocked the island.

"Aw man, when I get a hold of that weasel, he's gonna wish he'd never been born." I thought to myself. The island began to fall toward the ocean as I raced into the Chaos Chamber. I grabbed for the pieces that were still falling to the ground in a rain. I put what pieces I could see back into the vice and they solidified instantly upon reuniting. The island made another jarring change in direction, and started floating back up again. Phew, that was close.

Nothing had left the chamber, strangely enough, except for the spare emerald. I knew there was one that was supposed to be here, and I looked around for it but it wasn't here. I even checked outside. No, it definitely wasn't here. Then, suddenly, I felt it. It was off the island now, going at a high rate of speed over the ocean, toward Robotropolis.

"Robotnik again?" I thought to myself grumpily. I made my way to the cave where Mighty lived. When I got there, I called him outside.

"What's up?" Mighty asked.

"Someone's making off with one of the emeralds again, I need to go after it, and I need someone in charge while I'm gone." The armadillo nodded.

"You go on, I'll get the others and tell them what's going down."

"Thanks Mighty. Catch ya later." With that, I went out to the edge of the island and glided off toward the mesa in the distance.

Sally

I was in the mess hall, eating breakfast when Nicole suddenly glowed to life.

"Sally, the Floating Island is on a collision course with the ocean, if it hits, it will cause a tidal wave of immense... receiving new data, the Floating Island has stopped..."

"Nicole." I interrupted "Are you okay?"

"If you will let me finish, an explosion has been detected but the emerald is where it belongs. However, another emerald is currently traveling toward the edge of the island and will soon make landfall. If it continues at this rate, it will reach Robotropolis in three hours. Suggested course of action, intercept emerald and take it back to the Floating Island." Nicole had a map on display of the area in which the Floating Island had stopped.

It was just then, that Ebony happened to walk by, having finished her own breakfast. "G'morning princess, I guess I'll be going now and I just wanted to say..." She stopped in mid-sentence and looked at the map. "What's that?"

"It's the Floating Island." I said.

"What do you mean, Floating Island? I used to live in that area, and there are no islands near there, much less any that float." Ebony said.

"It isn't usually there." I pointed out.

"You don't mean. No. Now this is starting to sound crazy. I mean, a Floating Island? That defies all the laws of physics, not to mention gravity."

"Then how do you explain it being there?" I asked.

Ebony seemed genuinely dumbfounded. "I don't know."

"You said you used to live in that area?" I enquired curiously.

Ebony looked up at the ceiling of the mess hall reflectively. "Uh huh. Never went back to the village proper after the bodies were buried, didn't have the heart to, but it should be practically untouched."

Now she had my interest. Perhaps we could use this girl. Sonic certainly seemed to think she might be helpful. Sure it was already obvious that she was a bit unorthodox; most Mobians won't even touch a gun, but in this time of war, I could probably overlook that in the interest of gaining another Freedom Fighter. With Robotnik always vigilant and grabbing more and more territory as he went, we could never afford to turn away possible recruits. I decided to go after some more information. "Then can you tell me a little bit about the area?"

It was clear Ebony had warmed up to the subject by now. "Oh sure, what do you want to know?"

I stood up. "Well first, I'd like to go somewhere a little more private. Could you come with me?"

"Private? Why? And where?" Ebony asked curiously.

"Yes private, there is something happening to the Floating Island and it is important that it stays confidential. As to where we're going, nobody would be hanging around the meeting area right now."

"Okay your majesty." Ebony said, still slightly confused, but trying to be polite.

"Please, just Sally."

"I stand corrected. Okay Sally."

I grinned while the raccoon wasn't looking. Ebony, whoever she was, had quite a personality. If nothing else, she would be an interesting addition to Knothole even if she didn't become a Freedom Fighter. We both went outside.

Sonic left the mess hall right after we did. I discovered it was him when I heard the door close again right after we left and turned to see who it was. I waved and called to him. "Sonic! Could you come with us for a minute?" He followed us until we stopped at the stump where he would sometimes do a play by play of his latest adventures. The area was currently vacant except for us.

"Okay Sal, what is it?" Sonic asked.

"Someone is taking an emerald from Floating Island to Robotropolis."

"That's original." Sonic said sarcastically, "Robotnik's only tried that, what, about ten times already? It's not the Master Emerald is it?"

"No. Analyzed as common chaos emerald. Carrier identified as Nack T. Weasel." Nicole said.

Suddenly, Ebony scowled. "Most of this "Floating Island" stuff is Ancient Mobian to me, but now your speaking my language."

"You know him?" I asked.

"We've met." Ebony said in a voice that seemed to say her previous encounters with Nack held unpleasant overtones.

I gave her a look as though asking for an explanation.

Ebony sure gave me one. "Robotnik has put about five different prices on my head in the past three years. And it has always been the same bounty hunter. I wish he would just give it up."

"Why you?" Sonic asked before he thought about what effect the question might have.

Ebony grinned. "Can't tell you that." She hastily changed the subject. "So, what is this Master Emerald. The Chaos Emeralds I've heard about, but not the Master Emerald."

"No surprise there, if you've never heard of the Floating Island." I said.

I was about to go on when Sonic said "It's a really big jewel, with a lot of power."

"That's very descriptive. From what I've heard, that description could cater to any of the power stones they talk about in the other villages." Ebony said with a hint of amusement in her voice.

"Well, could you do any better?" Sonic retorted.

"Well, I've never seen it before so I wouldn't know." Ebony said.

"All right then, seriously." I said. "The Master Emerald is what keeps the island afloat. It sits inside a power vice inside a special chamber, deep inside it. Even a tiny piece holds power equal to a nuclear warhead."

"I see. Though it probably wouldn't be as likely to blow up, would it?" Ebony said, leaning in now as though the conversation in which we were currently engaged was very interesting.

"No. But Robotnik could use it for other things besides warheads." I said.

"Like the roboticizer for instance?" Ebony observed. "Yeah, that's one thing I understand completely. It's like this in every village I go through. It's nothing new." Ebony sat down on the stump. "Sally, thank you for making this clear. You want my help finding an old chunk of rock before it falls into the good doctor's hands and he can find a use for it, is that correct?"

"Yes." I answered. Something about Ebony's tone, though not ominous or mean, seemed to hint that she was leading up to something.

"You do know of course that you are trying to see how I'll do in a mission, in anticipation of my getting recruited into the Knothole Freedom Fighters. Am I right?"

"That was what I was thinking." I admitted.

"While I appreciate the invitation," Ebony said, smiling. "I don't really plan on joining any Freedom Fighters at this time. I have other things to attend to at the moment." She paused as though contemplating my request. "But, I do understand that we all could use every scrap of help we can get in these hard times. This was in the general direction that I was going, only overshooting my destination by a few miles, give or take one or two. I'll help you, gladly. I'm always willing to do my part for our side. But after that, I'm gone."

"Agreed." I said.

"I guess you want me to go too. I'll see you later Sal." Sonic said. He already seemed excited.

"Sally, it's been a real pleasure meeting you." Ebony held out her hand and I shook it.

"It's been a pleasure meeting you too Ebony. Is there any chance you'll be coming this way again?"

"Oh, you never know, I might drop by occasionally. Don't try looking for me though; I'll come without warning. It drives my friends crazy." She grinned and followed Sonic toward the edge of Knothole.

To be continued…


	3. ALC p3 Encounter in Southcliffs Ruins

The Doom Crystal: Part 1, A Little Chaos, Section 3

A Sonic the Hedgehog Fanfic by find-the-lion

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog, Knuckles the Echidna, Dr. Robotnik, Nack the Weasel, or Metal Sonic. Everyone in this list is copyrighted to SEGA, DiC Productions, and Archie Comics.

In order of appearance, Ebony Moon and Drake are copyrighted June 22, 2005 to myself, as is this story, which is also copyrighted June 22, 2005 to me.

Sonic

It was five minutes later when I reached the territory I was unfamiliar with. I stopped and let Ebony get in front. Once in that position she turned back to me.

"Now, where is it we want to go?" She asked.

"Nack was headed right for that village you were talking about with Sally." I said.

"That's not hard." She started walking in a southwesterly direction. It only took us another two minutes to reach the edge of the old village. Here, Ebony stopped. "You can go ahead if you want. I came back with some people and took care of the dead a long time ago, but I still feel uncomfortable here."

She sat down and waited for me to make the next move. I paused for a moment and then walked past the first cabin. I had to admit, Ebony did have a point about the place. It did feel a little spooky. It was probably a very nice village, when there were still people here. But most of the cabins were starting to fall apart. Some had old plasma burns on the outside. There was even one that had fallen in on itself.

Suddenly, I heard something. It was coming from inside one of the cabins that were not quite in as bad a shape as most of them.

"Doctor Robotnik, I have detected an energy source here."

'Metal Sonic? What's he doing here.' I thought to myself. But then again, what energy source could be under a house? A generator perhaps?

'I gotta check this out.' I thought. I opened the door without making it squeak and looked inside. Like I said, this was one of the cabins that was in slightly better shape, that does not mean in good shape. The windows were broken, some of the floor looked slightly water stained, and the furniture in the living area was not in the condition it could have been in, but compared to some of the other places I had passed by getting here, this would be five star lodging.

I followed the sounds of scraping boards to one of the bedrooms in the back. As I did so, I noticed a picture on the wall, still intact. It was a family of three raccoons with a wolf standing in the background.

'This was Ebony's old house.' I thought, noticing the little girl in the center of the picture. When I reached the door, I opened it and peeked inside. A bed had been shoved over to the side of the room, and a robot that looked like a pretty poor substitute for yours truly was poking around underneath the floorboards.

"Energy source getting stronger." A metallic voice echoed through the room.

"Metal Sonic, let it be for now, the weasel is almost here." Robotnik's voice crackled over the com-link.

"Will comply." Metal Sonic stood up and started toward the door.

I sneaked across the hall and through the other door. I don't like being subtle, most of the time, but something told me that now was a good time for it. I couldn't make use of my speed in here.

After I heard the outside door slam, I crept into the bedroom. The floorboards Metal Sonic had been messing around with had been flung over what remained of the old bed, revealing that there was an old box sitting underneath. I pulled it out and opened it. Why would this have Metal Sonic's attention? It was just an old pair of gloves. The design on them was very pretty though. A five pointed star done with five different colored crystals, set inside a white crystal circle. I looked at it curiously, for some reason, there was something very interesting about these gloves. It was weird, almost as though something was telling me to reach out and caress the crystals…

Then I heard a noise outside. I closed the box, and took it with me. I decided that I'd ask Ebony if she knew anything about them later. I set it down outside the house and ran back to where Ebony had been waiting for me.

Ebony

I had been waiting for five minutes when I heard something behind me. I reached inside my shoulder bag and pulled out my blaster. Setting it on stun, I stood up and searched the area for movement.

Suddenly I saw what was coming my way. I scowled as I recognized him. Purple fur, white snout, blue nose, brown wide brim hat. Nack the Weasel was coming in my direction. Let him come, I was ready. I raised my pistol up so that it was aimed at his chest. While if I did hit him a stun charge wouldn't kill him, it wasn't exactly the least painful spot to get hit.

"Put your hands in the air Nack, I got you covered." The weasel jumped in surprise and then saw the business end of my pistol pointed at him.

After a few moments, a grin spread across his weasely face of his and he spoke, his voice oozing molasses. "Well, we meet again Miss Moon."

"Yes we do Mister Weasel. But I can't say I'm pleased." I continued to cover him with my pistol.

Nack laughed as though humoring someone. "Well, isn't that nice. Now why don't you let me by so I can go about my business."

He tried to pass me, but I moved with him, continuing to hold my pistol up. "Sorry Nack, no can do, I understand you have in your possession a chaos emerald. If you hand it over quiet, I'll let you leave conscious."

"But Robotnik'll kill me if I do." Nack said, suddenly acting as though I had broken his front of bravado to beg for mercy.

I gave him a disgusted look. I knew him better then that. "Don't try that with me weasel. Now, if you don't hand the emerald over quietly, I'll stun you and leave you at the low tide mark on the beach."

"Oh well," Nack resumed his greasy attitude of before. "I tried, but I guess the better man won. Or in this case, woman. Put her there." He walked forward as though to shake my hand.

"Been there, done that." I said in a bored tone, raising the pistol to an even more threatening position to make him back off. "Last time I saw you pull that trick, you had cloth and a bottle of chloroform. I'm not stupid Nack. It's obvious I can't convince you, so come on." I motioned with the pistol toward the village ruins. Nack went in front and I followed behind.

Before you tell me how stupid I was not to have gone ahead and taken the gem from Nack right then and there, I assure you that this is a fact I am very well aware of. My only defense is that everyone makes a mistake once in a while. You see, my attention was drawn away by something else. Huh? What in the world was that thing! From a distance, I thought that perhaps it may have been Sonic, but as it advanced, I realized that the only similarity between the two was the color, blue, and the basic body shape, which was that of a hedgehog. Beyond that, the differences were extremely obvious. It got my attention shortly after this object came into view that it wasn't alive, and that it was designed to eliminate anything that was. It had claws for hands, a sharp pointy thing for a nose, sharp steel plates painted red for shoes, and the whole frame of the body looked like it was designed to rearrange someone's internal organs very quickly. The jet engine on this mysterious thing's chest, and the cold yellow eyes, were also kind of hard to miss.

"Oh well, Miss Moon, it looks as though you'll just have to let me make my delivery anyway, there's no way you could possibly survive against my friend here."

The strange hedgehog thing spoke in a creepy metallic voice. "Probability of comradeship with life-form designated as Nack T. Weasel: 0 Place the emerald on the ground and back away, and I might let you escape with your life."

"Don't do it Nack." I said slowly. "Or I'll make sure you don't."

Suddenly, a shadow flew over those of us who were assembled here and then a furry red something rocketed into the weasel in front of me and knocked him onto his stomach.

"All right punk, where's the emerald?" I wasn't exactly sure what to do anymore. Who was this guy? And just what was he? Didn't like any species I'd ever seen.

"Well, hello Knuckles," Nack said from his position on the ground. "Been having fun keeping your island from falling out of the sky?"

"I'll show you a thing or two about fun." Knuckles said, as he lifted up the weasel's head to a point where he could get a headlock on it. I was beginning to think that whoever this guy was, I could get to like him; he knew the right way to handle weasel bounty hunters.

It was just about then that the metal hedgehog thing decided to intervene. "Cease your petty quarrel and give me the emerald, now!"

Knuckles let the weasel's top half fall back to the ground as he looked up at the metal hedgehog thing with curiosity. "It can't be. Sonic?"

"Afraid not." Sonic said, finally having seen fit to show up. He was leaning against the wall of the nearest cabin. "That's just a robot double, the real deal is right here." I was now feeling very confused, and hoped someone would explain this situation to me very soon, so I would know for sure that it was okay to continue pointing this blaster pistol in Nack's direction, because now with this guy Knuckles in front of me, this was becoming an idea that was quickly losing my favor. I lowered the pistol and decided to get more info before taking action.

The hedgehog look-a-like looked over at Sonic. "I'll deal with you later hedgehog." He then turned back to Knuckles and Nack. "Hand over the emerald."

Nack wriggled out from under Knuckles and stood up. "Where's my money? Hand it over first."

"Not if I have anything to say about it." Knuckles said standing up as well, and moving to get a'hold of Nack again. "It belongs to the Floating Island."

I was still completely uncertain as to what I should do, but it was obvious that the robot hedgehog thing was losing patience with Nack and Knuckles. He raised the blaster he was holding at an even more ominous angle. "Surrender the emerald or face the consequences."

Well, that blaster was something I could easily get rid of, and so I decided to simplify that part of the equation. I raised my own gun, setting it on full charge, and shot the one in the robot's hand. It started smoking and then the robot had to turn briefly to throw it into the woods before it exploded, which happened in midair as it soared over the trees.

In the confusion that ensued, Nack bolted and took off into the old village.

"I do not have time for this. I will deal with you later." The hedgehog thing took off after the escaping weasel. The three of us looked at each other and then followed in hot pursuit.

We were running in a northeasterly direction. Deeper into the village. Back toward where I used to live. The robot hedgehog tore after Nack, easily outstripping him and slowing down in front of him before he reached the village limits. They were right near my old house when the robot confronted him again and we were quickly catching up; Sonic was almost there. Just up ahead, I could hear the two baddies arguing.

"Hand over the emerald weasel, or else."

"No moolah, no merchandise." Nack said.

The robot hedgehog thing threw a bag of coins on the ground. "That is all you will get from me weasel. Give me the emerald."

"Fine." Nack tossed the emerald in front of the robot.

"You have your money weasel, now get out of here before I change my mind."

Nack grabbed the bag and ran for the woods. Now that he had the emerald, robot hedgehog waited until we caught up with him. When we finally did, his eyes lit up hungrily. "Now I can deal with you." He droned.

Sonic grinned. "Bring it on Metal Sonic. Bring. It. On." So, that was the name of this whacked out contraption.

"I will. But first, I think I will help myself to something very valuable to the good doctor. He shall be very pleased." He made as if to leave directly north, but then swerved around a tree and grabbed me around the waist.

"Hey!" I yelled as I was hauled off. My shoulder bag fell to the ground as Metal Sonic left the clearing with me in tow. I watched helplessly as Sonic tried to race after me, but he quickly fell behind and disappeared. As Metal Sonic accelerated, I had the feeling I was in for a rough ride.

"There is such a thing as being gentle you know!" I yelled at Metal Sonic as he walked away from the cell where he had dumped I. I massaged my chin where it had hit the floor and moved to a sitting position. I could get out of a cell easily enough; I'd done it plenty of times. I just needed to get myself going again.

It had been a very rough ride. That was the understatement of the year. Faster then sound, over the shoulder of a robot that doesn't care about whether or not his passenger is jarred at every bump. I had almost lost my breakfast over the open area between the forest and Robotropolis, and even though I managed to keep myself from being sick in mid-flight, my chest and stomach were still feeling it. Ow. I was almost sure I really had hurt myself for the first few moments after landing on the floor. Once I was sure I hadn't damaged any ribs or organs, I stood up. After checking to see if anyone was looking, I reached into the space between my sock and the inner wall of my shoe and pulled out an old wire.

Old Drake had been right about knowing how to pick locks. Almost all doors are open to one who knows how. I knelt down and set to work on the door. It was almost too easy. Within seconds, the lock clicked open. I stood up and pushed open the door. Avoiding the usual pair of SWAT-bot guards at the exit of the block, I started looking for a possible escape route. If I was right, there should be a ventilation shaft at the far end of the cellblock.

I found it all right. "Darn." I swore under my breath. The vent cover was bolted securely shut, and without the tools in my shoulder bag, which if I hadn't dropped it, would have been around here somewhere, escape in this direction was not a feasible option. The alternative was not very attractive either. Find a way to occupy the guards until I could slip out.

Oh well, if that was the only way, then I had better get started before one of the robots sounded an alarm or something. Some of my friends, who had been gifted with a deeper voice then mine (these being of the male gender) had had some success, fooling SWAT-bots into thinking that Robotnik was talking over the radio, by holding a paper cup over they're mouths and issuing false orders from out of sight. This probably wouldn't have worked here, even if I did have a paper cup.

There was another way, and it was probably the simplest. All you did, was throw something as far away from the door as possible. If you threw it loudly enough, it would divert their attention long enough for someone to get through. I looked around for something to throw. My eyes halted on a fire hose that was hooked into the wall. Then again, maybe throwing something wasn't the only alternative after all. I was already formulating my plan when I saw the wall mounted security camera that was swiveling in my direction. I felt a grin spread across my face as I walked over to the hose and began to unhook it.

When it was off the rack, I put my hand on the spicket. The camera was almost pointed in my direction. This was going to be great! I looked up at it, still wearing the grin. "Hey Doc!" I yelled, and turned the hose onto the camera. Immediately, I heard footsteps coming from the door to the cellblock. As I was using a fire hose, and the water pressure inside of a fire hose is much more significant than that in a regular water hose, the camera was totaled within a few seconds. When the deed was done, I quickly turned off the hose, and listened. The block had been designed as a big square in the middle with four cells, and then on the outer ring, there were more cells with the walkway in between these two rings.

I was at the corner farthest away from the entrance, and I heard footsteps coming from the walk on my left, so I took the one on my right. I ran down the hall, feet hammering the ground as fast as I could go. I looked around the corner and saw the area around the door was completely vacant. Both the robots had left they're posts. Yes! I raced to the door and hit the button that opened it.

I was now in the main prison block. Good. Although I still remembered the last time she had been here. It hadn't been all that pleasant. I shivered as I passed the cell I had been in before. The opportunity to escape had not presented itself until the day after I had been captured, but that one night still gave me nightmares. I still remembered trying to get some sleep in here. My attempts had been foiled by the fear that if I did, I might not still be flesh and blood in the morning. And then, about midnight, I had heard this piercing scream from the laboratory. I had given up all desire to sleep right then and there and decided instead to focus all of my efforts on putting this place behind me. Even now, I wondered what had happened to the owner of that scream.

'Better push that thought aside and go back to finding a way out.' I scolded myself. I was almost down the corridor. That was good. But then something stepped off the lift at the other end. Bad, bad, bad!

"Oh no!" I said out loud and then quickly started toward the utility exit. It was three SWAT-bots. They stopped in front of the door before I could get there.

"Um, hi? I don't suppose you nice gentlemen would be willing to step aside would you?"

"Retrieving subject for interrogation." I ducked to the left as one of them tried to grab my arm. I turned to run in my originally intended direction, straight for the lift. Suddenly, something jerked behind me. One of the robots had grabbed me by my tail, and that really, really hurt! I had jerked very hard. I winced. Boy, did that hurt! There were tears welling up in my eyes. I eased backwards, stopped and turned around (as best I could with the SWAT-bot still clamped on) and held out my hands.

"Okay, okay, you got me, now get your filthy hands off my tail!" The SWAT-bot let go and I moved to bolt again but the robot grabbed me by the arm and held me still. One of the others came around this one with a pair of handcuffs and proceeded to bind my wrists. When they were secure, the robots escorted me upstairs.

To Be Continued…


	4. ALC p4 The Rescue and Afterward

The Doom Crystal: Part 1, A Little Chaos, Section 4

A Sonic the Hedgehog Fanfic by find-the-lion

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog, Princess Sally, Rotor Walrus, Knuckles the Echidna, Dr. Robotnik, or Uncle Chuck. Everyone in this list is copyrighted by SEGA, DiC Productions, and Archie Comics.

Ebony Moon is copyrighted June 22, 2005 to myself, as is this story, which is also copyrighted June 22, 2005 to me.

Sonic

I screeched to a halt near the underbelly of Robotnik's fortress.

"So this is where Eggbelly spends most of his time." Knuckles observed as he stepped out from behind some garbage. "You think it's big enough?" He added, looking up toward where the top was supposed to be.

"It is pretty big, but you can gawk later, right now, we have a party to crash." I said, pulling a screwdriver out of my backpack.

"True." Knuckles said. I finished unscrewing the cover on the ventilation shaft and climbed in. Knuckles followed. We crept along the shaft for some minutes, when we reached Robotnik's secondary lab. It was completely deserted, except for two worker bots, one of whom, I recognized as Uncle Chuck. The other was a cardinal that I didn't know.

I lifted the cover of the shaft and dropped into the lab. Uncle Chuck quickly gave the worker bot some other orders and it left the room.

"Sonic, what are you doing here?"

Knuckles jumped in surprise, he hadn't met my uncle before, and previous experience had already given him the idea that a worker bot would sooner attack you then say something to you.

"Rescue mission Unc, I'd talk now but I'm in a hurry."

"Who are you trying to rescue this time?"

"A new girl. She's a tall raccoon with dark brown eyes and blue sneakers.

"Ebony Moon." Uncle Chuck said instantly.

"You know her?" I asked.

"Not personally, but she has quite a track record for causing Robotnik trouble. Robotnik's been after her for three years because she has information about, lets see here..." He paused, counting it out in his mind "...a few villages, some of the tribes up in the Great Plains, a little with underground members. This girl's been around."

"No way!" I exclaimed.

"It's the truth, I should know as I've been into Robotnik's observation cameras."

"No wonder she wouldn't tell anyone what he was after." I mused.

"He's trying to interrogate her right now, I'd suggest you boys go to the main lab and get busy. She's not likely to spill the beans but it's better not to take chances if you can help it."

"See you later Unc."

"Good luck sonny boy." Uncle Chuck went back to work. In the mean time, we left in search of the main laboratory. Suddenly Knuckles stopped me.

"Look." He whispered, pointing down an alcove to our left. Sitting in a vice, was the emerald that Nack had swiped.

"Grab it and let's get going." I whispered back impatiently. Knuckles turned into the alcove and set to work on the vice, while I went on to the main lab. As I drew nearer, I began to hear voices.

"I'm telling you I have no idea what you are talking about." Ebony's voice sounded calm, almost, well, bored.

"How can you not when my surveillance cameras have picked you out with countless Freedom Fighter groups, all over my official Kingdom?" Robotnik demanded.

"Isn't it only natural that a traveler would occasionally get together with friends to beat up on your SWAT-bots? I'm not a hermit you know."

"And I believe it is also natural that a traveler would know where these friends lived, so as to have places to gather supplies."

"Sorry, no dice." Ebony was beginning to sound a little annoyed now.

"Then you leave me no choice."

I had reached the entrance to the lab by now and I could see inside. Ebony was standing up, hands bound in front of her, with two SWAT-bots standing guard behind. Robotnik was sitting in a chair, specially made to support his bulk. One of the SWAT-bots brought up what looked like a cattle prod and gave Ebony a poke with it. She jumped as one who has just received a very strong electric shock. Having been caught unawares, she fell over, catching herself just in time to prevent her face from hitting the floor.

"Now that's not very nice." Ebony muttered.

"Now look here, Miss Moon, I want to know what you know, and I want it now." Robotnik was leaning over the front of his seat, bearing down on the raccoon with an evil glare.

Ebony looked up defiantly at him and scowled back. "It'll take more then that, to make me talk egghead." She tried to pick herself up again, but another shock forced her back down. She pulled herself back to a sitting position again, still scowling.

"I'm through playing word games with you coon, tell me where your friends are now, or perhaps we can arrange a more interesting environment in which to continue this interrogation." Robotnik licked his lips in anticipation of the prospect.

"And I am through talking with you overlander, there is no way I would betray them or anyone else, and that's my last word!" She tried to stand up again, the SWAT-bot raised the stick again, but that was enough for me. That SWAT-bot was a pile of scrap before it raised that pole two inches.

"Hedgehog, priority one, apprehend by order of Robot-squeek!" Half a second of way past cool spin-dashing and buzz-sawing later, the other robot fell to pieces.

"You know doc, you should learn to treat your house-guests a little better. I'd stick around to teach you manners, but I gotta run!" I grabbed Ebony around the waist and ran out of the lab before Robotnik could order his SWAT-bots to make chase. I ran until we were outside the entrance to the ventilation shaft at which we entered the fortress.

"Are you okay?" I asked as I reached into my backpack and pulled out a pair of pliers.

"I'm all right, just a bit rattled. No need for the pliers." Ebony said. She reached into her shoe and pulled out an old wire.

"You could have gotten out of these things any time?" I asked as Ebony moved the wire around in the lock with practiced ease.

"Yeah, but not there. The less Robotnik knows about my escape strategies, the better. Not that I'm not grateful for your concern of course. That shock stick was no picnic, it felt like someone had tried to hit me all over the place at once. I'm still feeling it." The handcuffs fell to the ground and Ebony rubbed the small of her back. "Nope, definitely not one of my favorite things."

"Does this happen to you often?" I asked.

"Occasionally. Mostly when I've been careless. You should have seen the time Robotnik caught me trying to crash his computer, he strung me up like..."

"Ahem." Knuckles was standing at the entrance to the vent, empty-handed. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, there are SWAT-bots crawling up the vent behind me. I think it's time we moved our little party somewhere else."

"What about your emerald?" I asked.

"Don't worry, I got it." Knuckles tossed the gem in the air and caught it again. "Now lets move."

Ebony grabbed onto my shoulders and we were out of there in almost no time. A few minutes later, we were standing next to the tree stump.

"So how did you learn all that stuff Robotnik wanted?" I asked Ebony.

"Oh well, you know, when you travel, you learn a lot of things and some things in my case just weren't in the best interests of my health." She said. "Don't worry about it. I know how to take care of myself."

Knuckles made another throat clearing noise to get our attention. "Well, I'd love to hang around with you guys, but I have an island waiting for me back home."

"See ya Rad Red." I said.

"Likewise True Blue. And as for you," He turned to Ebony. "You stay out of trouble."

"Okay." Ebony said.

With one last wave, Knuckles disappeared into the woods.

Ebony

"What I'd like to know is why Metal Sonic was so interested in this thing." Sally gestured at the box in front of me.

"To tell the truth Sally, I don't have a clue. No one told me there was something buried under my house until Metal Sonic found it." That was true, neither my mother nor my father had ever told me about any such thing.

"Rotor checked it over with every sensor he had; there was nothing he could get. Are you sure no one told you anything, because Sonic said that Metal Sonic got a power reading off of this box." Sally said.

"Well, it could have been something else, right?" I mused aloud. "I mean, as far as you know, it's just an ordinary pair of gloves. Seeing as how it was under my house, is it all right if I take it back and get a closer look at it?"

"Okay." Sally relented. "We sure haven't found anything, so go ahead."

I picked up the old box and walked out of the meeting hut. I walked to the edge of the village, where my cabin was located. I was still a little sore from yesterday. Especially across my front, where Metal Sonic had slung me over his metallic shoulder, but I still planned to start the trip to Willow Grove, first thing after lunch.

I opened the door, went in, and set the box down on the table. As I did, something thumped inside it. It didn't sound like something natural, and out of curiosity, I opened the box. I should have known better, but it was like something was telling me that I must open the box. I lifted the lid and looked inside.

Sitting on the wood bottom of the box, was the old pair of gloves Sonic had told me about with the ornate crystalline design on them. There was something very compelling about these gloves. I picked one of them up and looked at it very carefully. There was nothing on the outside of these accessories that looked particularly unusual except perhaps the way the crystals had been molded onto the glove. Still, it was awfully pretty, I thought, as I moved to run my hands over the design. Suddenly, there was a bright flash of light, and with a cry of pain and surprise, I was knocked across the room.

Sonic happened to be walking by outside and heard me yell. He found me sitting across from the table half a second later.

"What happened?" He asked, walking over and pulling me to a standing position.

"I don't know." I said, rubbing the back of my head where I had banged it against the far wall. "Do you know if Rotor checked those things for booby traps while he was at it?"

"I never asked." Sonic said honestly.

I walked back over to the box, and noticed that the crystals seemed to be smoldering as though they were hot.

"Whoa." Sonic said. He was standing behind me, looking over my shoulder at the unusual behavior these crystals were exhibiting.

"Maybe they were booby trapped." I mused. More carefully now, I examined the box, looking for the mechanism that had set it off. I couldn't find one. "That's odd." I thought aloud.

"Listen, Sally needs me for something, are you sure your gonna be okay messing with this puppy alone or should I get Rotor for you?" Sonic asked.

"As far as I can see, I'm fine. I'll just have to be a bit more cautious about what I touch in this thing."

"If you're sure." Sonic said.

"I'm okay. You go on." I said.

After Sonic left, I started rummaging around in my bag for some better tools then my bare hands. Still, why would my parents have a booby-trapped box under the floorboards of our house? Using a pair of wires that I regularly used for lock picking, I carefully felt around the edges of the box for any further traps. There were none. But then I noticed something else. My hands were starting to hurt a little bit, almost as though I had been burned. Curious, I rolled back one of my gloves so I could see the origin of this discomfort. There was now a small star-shaped scar where previously none had been before. "Well." I thought to myself, as I wondered why it hadn't burned through the glove itself. "I guess that will just stay there to remind me not to mess with strange boxes without taking the proper precautions first."

It was then that I looked up and noticed that it was almost noon. Goodness, if I was going to get some lunch I'd better get moving. I decided to put my investigation of the mysterious spontaneously exploding crystals that didn't burn cloth on hiatus until a more opportune time. In the mean time, I decided, I would leave them with Sally with instructions not to let anyone disturb the box's contents until my return (if ever), in hopes that others could avoid my mistake.

Having made this decision, I proceeded rub some balm on the burns so they wouldn't hurt anymore, and then pack the rest of my belongings in preparation for the trip to Willow Grove. This didn't take me very long, as I travel light anyway. Once I was finished, I closed the box, so I could deliver it to Sally, and then I picked it up, and made my way toward the meeting hall, and some lunch. Hopefully, I could leave without too much excitement, and then be at my destination by sundown.

To be continued…


	5. SBR&HP p1 Ebony's Return

The Doom Crystal: Part 2, Stuck Between a Rock and a Very Hard Place, Section 1

A Sonic the Hedgehog Fanfic by find-the-lion

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog, Dr. Robotnik, or Snively. They are copyrighted by SEGA, DiC Productions, and Archie Comics.

However, Ebony Moon and Maria the Cat are copyrighted July 7, 2005 to me as is this story which is also copyrighted July 7, 2005 to me.

Notes:

This story takes place four months before Endgame in the comic book.

Ebony

Oh, hello. I see you decided to come back. That's great! I'm thrilled; I really am. It's great to know that people think what you have to say is worth hearing. But enough about that. Let's see, where did we leave off? Oh yes, I had left Knothole to go to Willow Grove, another one of the local villages, on a personal errand. I think I'll skip ahead from there a bit. For a while after that, not much happened that could be considered unusual. Even though I have never actually joined the Freedom Fighters anywhere, I routinely do my part to help our side. I make Robotnik's life perfectly miserable as often as my traveling lifestyle permits, and apparently in the last three years, I have done so enough times to have the dubious honor of achieving his attention. This gained me some notoriety among the other villages I had visited, even though some of them had already as good as adopted me when I first wandered in, but after I bumped into Sonic and proved that Knothole and the Freedom Fighters did indeed exist, it made me nothing short of a hero.

I don't consider myself a hero. I have too many problems of my own to even consider a full time career in hero work. We'll explore that further a little later. First and foremost on the list at this point in time, had been the whereabouts of my family.

But enough about that, what was going on right now? Oh yes, about a week ago, I had checked in at a SWAT-bot station and accessed a file there that had told me they were being transferred to a mining operation on the giant super continent of Aisra. I would have left straightaway, but at that time, I received a call from a friend of mine who I had last seen about a month prior at his village on the edge of the Great Plains to the north. He wanted me to come back and help him find one of the nomadic tribes up there. That'll get explained better later in this narrative, but apparently, they had gone missing from their usual haunts. Unfortunately, from my current location, the quickest way back to where he was happened to be through Robotropolis, but when a friend is in need, what can you do?

I'll tell you what you do. You run like crazy! That's what you do, and that's what I was doing at the moment. I had almost made it about two thirds of the way through the city when it happened that I was spotted by one of those flying surveillance probes that Robotnik uses to spy on his empty hulk of a city. Of course, as you probably already figured out, this meant SWAT-bots. I had dispatched five already as I retreated through one of the old residential districts, but there were too many for me to take on alone.

I was currently running down one of the back streets behind a row of what had been apartment buildings, when I noticed a ladder coming up on my left. Thinking that perhaps if I climbed it quickly enough, I could get to the roof and find an alternative running path, I sprinted to it and started climbing. I was almost to the third floor when I felt a spotlight on me. There wasn't much I could do about that, so I contented myself with trying to scramble faster up the ladder. A blasted bolt singed my hair and hit the wall as I neared the top.

"Come on, is that the best you can do?" I yelled at them as I climbed onto the roof. "I'll bet you couldn't hit the broad side of a..." this last taunt was drowned out by a shower of plasma fire. 'Oh yeah, that was real smart.' I thought to myself as I ducked down below the wall that surrounded the roof and looked for a better hiding place. A trap door stood open in the center. I crawled to it and climbed down inside. So much for running.

"Now where do I go?" I asked myself. I found one of the suites that was on the opposite side of the building from where I had climbed up. There was a window in what had been the living room that was open enough for someone to get through. I went to the window and looked out, evaluating the street on this side, which was currently empty. Definitely an improvement on the street I'd left.

I reached into my shoulder bag and found a thin cord with a small device that resembled a grappling hook attached. Upon further study of the living area I was in, I fixed the hook around a pipe just inside what had been the kitchen. I tested my weight on it and it held, so I eased out the window, and slowly slid down the rope. I dropped the last few feet to firm ground and after tugging on the rope to retrieve my hook device, I continued to creep toward the edge of the city..

As I passed an unattended corner something about the whole picture suddenly seemed wrong somehow, as if it were too easy.

What was it?

Maybe just the quiet. I shook my head and kept going. It had to be my imagination.

I passed the next corner, which also was empty of SWAT-bots. 'Okay, maybe Sonic's around or something.' I thought to myself, as I continued walking. Then a siren sounded. I nearly jumped out of my skin and started running again.

As I ran, I suddenly noticed that there was something up ahead, approaching through the smog. I couldn't see who it was, but I quickly decided that it didn't look friendly, and so I turned around and started sprinting back in the other direction. Up ahead there was an open door on my right. Deciding that perhaps I might have better luck in not getting found on the next street, I went through this new door and quickly began searching for a back exit. When I finally found it, I tried to pull it open. I think my luck ran out about there, because it wouldn't open.

"Come on." I muttered. If I wasn't being chased, I'd have time to pick the lock, but there wasn't time. Finally, I realized that there was a window next to the door. If I could find a pipe or a stick or something, I might be able to break it and get out that way. As I cast about for a possible glass breaker, I noticed something standing in the doorway I had entered through. It looked like a cat.

"Oh, hello," I said. "Are you being chased too or do you live here?" The cat walked into the room without saying anything. The lights were dark in here so I couldn't see very well, but as the cat approached, I noticed that she was brandishing a pair of handcuffs.

"I'll take that to mean you live here." With that, I pulled back my right fist and attempted to punch her in the face as I prepared to quickly retreat around her, back the way I had come. This would have worked, except that something else appeared in the equation at that moment. Almost as fast as I punched, the cat blocked it with her right arm and then proceeded to counter by punching me in the stomach. Next thing I remember, she hauled me up by my wrists, proceeded to secure them behind me and then half carry me, half push me back the way we had come. It happened that fast.

I didn't get a good look at my captor until we were outside. We were moving toward a hover unit that had just landed, and I risked a peek at her. What I saw nearly made me gasp. She had a white lower face stomach, but the rest of her was black. I did notice however, that there was a seam as though someone or something had sewed her together going down her face, right between her eyes, and moving down the left side of her pink nose, and coming to a stop right at the bottom of her cheek.

"Move it." She said when she noticed that I was no longer doing so. She forced me to turn back around and then opened the door to the hover unit, which we had reached by now. It was a standard model. You know, with the pilot and copilot's seat in the front, a gun turret on the top and the cell taking up the rear. Anyway, she pushed me into the holding cell, making me fall on my face in the process, and locked the door. She then went up to the front and took the controls in front of the pilot seat. It didn't take me long to figure out that we were headed toward Robotnik's fortress.

I got myself up onto my knees. It was an awkward position with my hands behind my back, but I managed. I had a feeling that since the last time Robotnik saw me I was being rescued by Sonic, he wouldn't be too keen to let me sit in a cell for a while. I had no intention of getting anywhere near him at the moment. I reached into my left sock, and got out a small piece of wire.

After a minute of poking around, the handcuffs fell to the floor. I stood up, planting my feet to insure I didn't fall on my face again, and made my way to the door. From my place in the cell, I could now see out of the windshield. It was then I noticed that we weren't going to the prison blocks. The prison blocks were at the base of the fortress. We were going straight to Robotnik's personal landing pad. That was a bad sign. It meant he didn't even want me to see the cellblocks before he got started. That was something I could not afford to let happen.

I looked at the door of my prison. It was no different from any other cell door I'd worked with, so pulled out the wire again and set to work. If only I had more time. This lock was particularly complex, and I wasn't exactly in the best position to pick it. I suddenly felt the hover unit land and quickly hid my wire as I saw the cat stand up from the pilot's seat and turn to make her way back toward my cell.

Of course, the cat immediately noticed the handcuffs I had deposited on the floor, and deduced from this that if she were to open the door as she was, I would undoubtedly try to tear her throat out in an escape attempt. From this line of thinking, she reached for a plasma rifle that was sitting next to my bag and pointed it at me.

"You may be an escape artist, but if you do anything funny before I take you to Robotnik, there is no way you could possibly escape this little toy." I decided to wait to test her theory until a more opportune time. I put my hands up and waited for her to open the door to the cell. She opened it and motioned that I walk out. I did and again, waited while she collected my effects from a table just out of reach of the cell door. I then continued forward after she signaled me with a poke in the back with her rifle. I walked forward and out the door to see that we were indeed on Robotnik's personal landing pad, and that, he had come out to greet us.

"Hello again Miss Moon." He said in his usual venomous tone. I didn't answer him, I was too busy trying to analyze the situation for possible escape routes.

"Please, won't you come in, I'm sure we can find quite a lot to talk about in my laboratory."

"It seems you'll just drag me in there anyway, unless I want to die out here in the cold. But then again, considering the odds of what's in store for me, chances are the latter would be preferable."

Robotnik advanced on me and cupped my chin in his roboticized left hand. "If you were anyone else, I would be happy to oblige. But then I would miss out on all of your wonderful little stories about where your friends are." He let go of my chin and signaled to the cat. The feline in question guided me through the door at the other end of the landing pad, which, I soon discovered, led to one of Robotnik's bigger laboratories.

Snively, was waiting in front of a computer console and there were also two SWAT-bots waiting to take custody of me from the cat. This they did, with each one taking hold of one of my arms. Having finished her job, the cat walked back out through the door to the landing pad, I assume to park the hover unit in it's accustomed place, wherever that was. It was then that I noticed a rectangle of steel that seemed to be standing upright against the nearby wall. I also noticed that the SWAT-bots who were now restraining me were leading me towards it. When we were almost there, I saw four cylindrical objects slide out from the steel rectangle's flat surface. On closer inspection, meaning we were right on top of them, and the SWAT-bots were forcing my ankles and wrists into them, it became obvious that these were shackles.

Once he was certain I was secure, Robotnik sauntered over to where I was now effectively shackled to the wall and said, "Now, perhaps you could tell me the location of Knothole."

"Forget it tubby." I answered. "Your not speaking Mobian anymore."

"Miss Moon, I do not have time for this, perhaps I have not made myself clear, I might let you remain free another day."

"Yeah, maybe sometime in the next life. Forget it."

A SWAT-bot interrupted the interrogation. "Excuse me sir, but your bath water is ready and if you do not hurry it will be cold."

Robotnik turned back to me and said, "Well Miss Moon, I suppose we shall have to wait until tomorrow to finish our business. My new combat specialist did find you rather late in the evening, and perhaps your attitude will change after you've had some time to think it over." He and Snively then completely vacated the room, leaving me where I hung while the SWAT-bots took positions at the doors to the room to make sure no one entered, not even the worker bots.

'Wow. Saved by the bath.' I though to myself. 'Now that's a disturbing picture.' I allowed myself a moment to reflect on the situation. There had to be some way out of this. I just had to figure out what it was. Hmm. It was obvious that I couldn't do much hanging here. I would need assistance. My eyes landed on my squad of guards. They may only obey Robotnik, but that doesn't mean you can't manipulate them.

"Hey SWAT-bots!" I called.

They ignored me.

"Hey! Metalheads!" I tried again, louder this time.

They continued to ignore me.

I took a deep breath and bellowed one of my personal favorites, "YO! GARBAGE CANS!"

Nothing.

They didn't budge, but I suddenly had another idea. "You know, Sonic was right here, just now, and you missed him!"

Still nothing. I sighed. Perhaps that wasn't the way to go after all.

'I guess I'll just have to come up with some other means of getting down from here.' I thought to myself.

To Be Continued…


	6. SBR&HP p2 Another Rescue

The Doom Crystal: Part 2, Stuck Between a Rock and a Very Hard Place Section 2

A Sonic the Hedgehog Fanfic by find-the-lion

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog, Dr. Robotnik, Snively, Princess Sally, Bunnie Rabbot, or Miles (Tails) Prower. They are copyrighted by SEGA, DiC Productions, and Archie Comics.

However, Ebony Moon, Taylor Dovewing, Josephine (Arrow) Lisara, and Maria are all copyrighted June 24, 2005 to me, as is this story which is also copyrighted June 24, 2005 to me.

Sally

It was the middle of the night and all of the major Freedom Fighters were gathered in the central meeting hut. Bunnie, it seemed had had a very strange experience while on a reconnaissance mission in Robotropolis. On her return, she had asked that we call a meeting about it because she felt that it could have a great impact on us in the future.

"It goes without sayin'," Bunnie began. "That Ah got the stuff we needed before this happened. But Ah was on mah way outta the city when Ah saw somethin' in an alley Ah passed by."

"What was it Bunnie?" Rotor asked.

"Ah wasn't sure at first, but when Ah got a closer look, Ah thought it looked like a cat." she said, "A black cat with a white face, an' she was walkin' funny, like she couldn' move her arms n' legs right. That was when she saw me. Almost immediately she raised a hand as though to hit me but then, before Ah even raised mah hand to block," She gestured with her roboticized left arm as though reenacting the event. "She suddenly stopped and said "What have I done?" and then, she fell over and started crying." She paused.

"What could that have been all about?" I asked, slightly bewildered.

Bunnie continued, "Ah stood there for a moment, and then she saw me again and yelled "Get away from me" Ah backed off and then Ah saw in the streetlight that there was a scar all down her face." She shook her head as if she still didn't believe it. "Ah tried to see if maybe she needed some help but when Ah tried to get closer to her to she ran like Ah was tryin' to kill 'er."

"It sounds like she was the subject of one of Robotnik's experiments." Rotor mused. "I'd guess that she wasn't in total control of her actions."

I stood up. "Anyone here want to look into this?" I asked.

"Ah'd kinda like to know what happened to her." Bunnie remarked. "She looked like she was in pretty bad shape."

Then Tails spoke up. "Can I come too, pleeeeease?"

Before I could say no, Sonic said, "Sure little bro'. Let's go kick some Robuttnik." Thirty minutes of discussion later, it was decided that Sonic, Tails, and Bunnie and I would leave in the early morning and collect what information that we could before noon. Hopefully, we would be able to do something about this poor creature, but I didn't know what. If Robotnik had really done something to her, there was no telling how this was going to go.

Ebony

Did I fall asleep? I don't know why, because I had every reason not to, but apparently, I realized as I heard Robotnik's voice coming from across the room, I had.

"Rise and shine, sleepyhead." I now realized that it was coming from a video screen across the room. I also noticed that Snively was fiddling with a control panel right in front of where I was. I also noticed as he moved briefly to the side that there was a button in the center of the panel clearly labeled 'Release'. Hmm. Another idea began forming but first, I decided, to bring this interview with Robotnik to a close so I would have more time alone with Snively, and I don't mean 'that' kind of time.

"Don't I have the right to know what you're going to do to me, since I'm hanging here?" I asked.

Robotnik gave an evil smile. "This is one of my newer inventions. Once it is turned on, it gives a jerk to those shackles, pulling them tighter each time, think of it as a step up from the rack. You'll have about an hour to give me the information I want before the stress on your body becomes too much and then..." He took a piece of paper from off camera and ripped it in half. I shivered involuntarily. If my idea worked, then hopefully I would be long gone before then. It got worse though. As I continued contemplating my situation, I felt a sharp object penetrate my shoulder and looked to see what it was. A robotic arm with a needle at the end retracted into the wall. Within about half a minute, it felt very painful to move. I turned my head back to the screen, as though hoping for an explanation of this occurrence.

Robotnik had none to give, as he was too busy talking to Snively. "I'll be in my chamber if anything comes up."

He left, and then Snively said "You know Miss Moon, that little prick you just felt was my idea. The layman calls it chemical pain. I may be tempted to use more if you don't cooperate, so I would suggest you hurry up with that information." He went to the control panel and hit a button near the one that said 'Release'. Almost immediately, I felt pain searing through my entire body, but I didn't scream. I was too busy trying to think how I could get Snively to press that button.

It was about then that I saw a blue blur running across one of the view screens behind him. Perfect. Give it a few minutes and then I would spring my plan.

Sonic

Sally, Bunnie, Tails, and me were creeping past an old building in Robotropolis when we heard the sounds of feet running towards them through the smog.

We hid behind a pile of garbage and waited. It was none other than the cat we'd been talking about last night. She stopped, looking undoubtedly lost. Then Tails accidentally knocked over the remains of a force field generator. The cat turned, shining a flashlight beam from her right pointer finger. She walked around the rubbish heap until she spotted us. At first, we got ready for a fight but then she cried out "Wait! I'm not here to fight!" The light went out then. It was pitch black where we were now, and I could barely see anything.

The cat stood there in the dark for a few minutes and then spoke. It was more like she was pleading then anything else. "Will you help me? Please." It was rather difficult to see her in the dark, but she sounded on the verge of tears.

"First, tell us who you are." Sally said.

"You'll know what I am if you meet me in a dark alley one night." The cat answered.

"But we're in a dark alley right now." I said. "I don't think I'm having any bright sparks of brilliance here."

"Are ya'll workin' for Robotnik?" Bunnie asked.

"Not out of choice, I won't say more than that. But yesterday night I helped catch a raccoon in this region of Robotropolis."

"What's that got to do with us?" I asked impatiently.

"I'm assuming that you know her because he seemed to associate her with Sonic Hedgehog and the Princess Sally Acorn." The cat answered. "Also, she seems to have in her keeping some information that is valuable to Robotnik, and he's trying to get it from her now."

"Why are you telling us this if you work for Robotnik?" Sally asked.

"I can only tell you these things because I found a way to temporarily escape. That was the first time I had seen a living creature since Robotnik captured me. I don't think I could live with myself if I had a hand in getting her killed. I don't want it on my conscience but there is nothing I can do, that's why I need you're help."

"Killed?" Bunnie asked curiously.

"I can't stay much longer, Robotnik could regain control at any second, and I must leave before I hurt anyone. Farewell Freedom Fighters."

She turned to go when Sally said, "Wait!" She stopped. "What can we call you?"

There was silence for a moment and then the cat answered in a hushed voice. "Maria" With that, she was gone. Someone risked using a flashlight and we looked at each other in its beam. Everyone else looked just as confused.

"Do you think we should look into this, or should we just go? It could be a trap."

"I could check it out." I said.

Sally thought for a minute. "Okay, but take Bunnie with you."

"What about me Aunt Sally?" Tails chimed in.

With that, Bunnie and me took off for Robotnik's fortress, hoping that if this prisoner was real, she'd be okay when we got there.

We were already halfway to Robotnik's main lab when I saw her through a vent shaft. I stopped so fast that Bunnie was slammed against me, knocking us both over.

"Sorry sugah-hog." She said.

"No prob." I whispered back. We picked ourselves up and looked down into the lab.

"Bunnie, look!" I exclaimed in a whisper.

"Isn't that Ebony? What's she doin' here?" Bunnie asked.

Our conversation was interrupted when Ebony yelled, "Hey Sonic! Come back! Don't just leave me here!" Snively's back was turned, and now he whirled around to see what was going down. I was curious now, because I had never been in this lab during the time she was here. I decided to keep watching even while Bunnie started unscrewing the vent cover so we could enter the lab.

"Stupid hedgehog. I see what you're doing! You don't care if I live as long as I don't tell Snively what you're up to!"

Snively was now approaching the wall where she now hung, as though to ask what she was doing.

Ebony continued to panic. "The hedgehog put a bomb on this thing! If you don't get it out from where he put it, it's gonna blow and you'll never be able to get the info you want!"

That got Snively's attention.

He was right in front of her now, demanding where it was so that he could remove it, but then Ebony leaned her head down toward Snively's as though whispering to him, and said in a voice I could barely hear. "It's right in front of you overlander."

With a sound that made Bunnie and me think, "Ow, that's gotta hurt!" She reared back and butted her head into Snively's, pushing him back into the control panel. Almost immediately, her shackles came undone and she landed in a crouch on the floor. As quickly and fluidly as she had landed, she attacked the overlander, knocking him the rest of the way to the ground and in the several minutes during which we got down into the lab, Snively underwent what can only be called a thrashing within an inch of his life.

Bunnie spoke first. "Well, it looks like you didn't need us to rescue ya after all, doesn' it sugah?"

After pummeling Snively one last time, Ebony stood up and turned toward us, although for a moment it was as though she didn't recognize us.

"Hi Ebony, long time no see." I said.

"Hello Sonic. Bunnie." She addressed each of us and then looked back at Snively. "What should we do with him?" It was then I noticed that there was something different about the way she was talking. I couldn't quite figure it out just at the moment, but it just seemed different from the way she usually spoke.

"We have to leave him." Bunnie said. "If we take him with us he'll know where Knothole is and we cain't risk that yet."

"Then why don't we kill him? Robotnik won't miss him." She gave Snively who was now cringing on the ground a look of pure disgust.

"Let's just go before the SWAT-bots show up." Bunnie said. I had to agree with her, this was creeping me out. After going over to the spot where her shoulder bag was and picking it up, she looked as though she might be considering taking a U-turn back over in his direction, although for what purpose, remains her little secret.

"Lets go." I said before anything could happen. Ebony shook her head and turned to climb into the ventilation shaft after us.

As we left the vent for the filthy street, Ebony muttered, "It would have been so sweet to see how he liked being almost pulled in half. Oh well." It was as though a switch had been flipped and the Ebony I remembered was back again. "Hey Sonic, where are we?"

"What do you mean? We're outside Robotnik's fortress, going toward Knothole."

I was beginning to wonder if maybe something really had happened to her during her stay in Robotnik's lab, but she shook her head as though trying to assure us that it wasn't what it looked like, and said. "What I meant was, I don't believe I've been on this street before. Where are we?"

"Oh. It's just a little side street that runs back toward the dump."

"Okay. Did anyone else come or was it just you two?"

Bunnie took that question. "Sally and Tails came, but they're back the meet'n place."

"Well, I guess I'll come with you there, and say hi to everybody, but then I have to get going again. I'm already running late." Ebony remarked.

"Late for what sugah?"

"I have a friend up near the edge of the plains who needs my help."

"Doing what?" I asked.

"Well." Ebony began. "You see, he has some family in one of the tribes that live on the plains, and just recently, this tribe just upped and left their usual hunting grounds. He wants me to help him find them again. The shaman that runs the tribe has a power stone she can use to protect the tribe, but the tribes don't usually deviate from their established turf unless there's something really wrong. And my friend's very worried." All this time we had been creeping through the streets toward our meeting place, all the while watching for SWAT-bots and stuff.

"Is there any way we could do something about this?" I asked.

"That's very generous of you Sonic, but I'm already going and Hank's pretty sure this is only a tracking mission." We saw Sally and Tails up ahead, and Tails waved at us. Ebony spoke again as we got closer. "We're here? I guess I'd better get going then. Like I said, I can't stick around, because I'm running late as it is."

"Late for what." Sally had just arrived.

"Oh nothing. Hello Sally, long time no see!"

"Are you all right?" Sally asked.

Ebony grinned. "I just kicked gave Snively a butt-kicking he won't soon forget. I'm great."

"Hi Ebony!" Tails said. He hadn't spent as much time with her as the rest of us, but he had met her during her stay at Knothole and they seemed to hit it off pretty well.

"Wow Tails, you've grown an inch or two." Ebony exclaimed, ruffling his headfur.

Tails just grinned.

"What exactly are you late for?" Sally asked curiously.

"I really don't have time to explain, but one of my buddies up near the Great Plains is worried about some family he has in one of the tribes up there and he wants to see where they went."

"I've never heard of any villages up there." Sally said.

"Well, there is one." Ebony said. "And I need to get going." With that she turned toward the forest and started walking quickly in that direction.

I suddenly had an idea. "Hey Ebby! Wait!" She turned around curiously. "If Robotnik were to get a'hold of that shaman person's power stone, it would be really bad right?"

She was facing us again, looking slightly annoyed now. "Yeah, it would be very bad. Not only could he kill off Hank's tribe, he'd also be able to find the other tribes too. Why?"

I decided to go on with my idea. "What if a few of us decided to go with you, just to be on the safe side?"

"Sonic, if your suggesting that I am going to have a string of freedom fighters on my tail all the way to Lilac then you can forget it. I respect you guys as friends, but I have no intention of dragging you guys all the way through the Great Forest only to let you bore yourselves to death while Hank and I are only out hunting for footprints." Ebony said, although she seemed about halfway to laughing. She turned to leave for the third time.

"But power stones happen to be a specialty of ours." I called after her. "The last thing I'd want would be to let it get in Robotnik's hands."

Ebony seemed to be debating with herself. "Once again, I appreciate your offer, but no, now if you will excuse me, I have to get going." For the fourth and last time she turned to leave, and after waving to us, she left us to discuss this new development.

Ebony

"Weird." I thought to myself as I entered the open lands around Robotropolis. What happened back there? It wasn't that I didn't know what happened specifically, but how it happened. For one thing, that stuff I'd been injected with. What Snively had called chemical pain? I would have thought that I would have been in agony for hours afterward, if the stuff was going to live up to it's name, but instead, it wasn't any worse than a bee sting. My body had stopped reacting to it just before Sonic arrived.

And then there was that moment when I had gotten myself free and nearly clobbered Snively. Had I really suggested killing him? I don't know. I guess I never really thought of myself as being that… well… ruthless. At the same time, wouldn't it have been for the best to go ahead and deal with the enemy right then rather then continue that vicious cycle of attacking and then retreating without a major victory? It was an interesting dilemma. As I said, weird.

The sun was setting now, and it was getting darker under the trees as I approached the edge of the forest. Once I was actually under the trees, I started to relax. The smells of the forest and the evening sounds were at last giving me the chance to calm down. The prospect of making camp soon and hopefully getting to Lilac Point tomorrow sounded like a wonderful.

I walked on until I found one of my favorite campsites in this area; a small lake with lots of rocks around it. I entered the clearing and started surveying it to determine where the best spot was to set up camp. It was then that it occurred to me. I wasn't really all that far from Knothole now that I thought about it and who was I kidding? I wasn't going to get very far once it got really dark. Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to stay there tonight. Besides, I'd been kind of rude to Sonic and the gang. Perhaps I should try to make it up to them.

I sat on a rock that hung over the lake for a moment, pondering my choices. A moment was all I got because my thoughts were soon interrupted. All of a sudden, I heard a crashing noise to the east of my current location, and then a loud female voice.

"Meet thy end robotic scum!"

"Now what?" I thought to myself as I stood up and started running toward the noise. "They'd better not have found Knothole! I've had enough bad news for one day." When added to the synthesized voice saying "Surrender biologicals by order of Robotnik!", it was quite obvious that someone, or more than one someone, was going toe to toe with some SWAT-bots.

When I reached the clearing, which I may point out, was no closer to Knothole then the lake was, you are not going to believe what I saw, and at first, I didn't either.

There were a pair of foxes, each equipped with a bow, and a quiver of arrows and each one of them were attempting to take on four SWAT-bots. This in itself was not unusual, but would the fact that they were both airborne by virtue of the fact that each of them were endowed with a pair of wings as white as a snowdrift.

I rubbed my eyes and looked again, thinking that what I'd just experienced in Robotnik's lab had done something to my eyes. It hadn't. It was then that I realized that these two creatures were starting to lose in spite of their apparent expertise with their chosen weapons.

Suddenly, a laser whizzed past one of them and exploded on a tree right behind her. This one fell to the ground like a stone, knocked out from the shock. The other dived for her companion, dragged her into the woods, and began taking random shots at them from above in the trees.

After seeing this, I decided to take an active role in the fighting. I pulled my pistol out of my shoulder bag, made sure it was fully charged, and then aimed for the nearest available SWAT-bot. One shot, and the first one was down. Too easy. Then I aimed at the other one.

The remaining creature had been apparently put off by the first shot but when the SWAT hit the ground, she sent a perfect bulls-eye through the other one before I could get a clear aim. There was only two now. Odds I was comfortable with. I revealed my position and started firing in rapid succession, destroying the last SWAT-bots, and clearing the area.

I put my blaster back in my shoulder bag and then called up to whatever that creature was. "Are you all right?" No answer. "Whoever you are, I'm not going to hurt you. Will you please show yourself?"

This time I was answered by a rustling in the bushes on the other side of the clearing and the appearance of the second creature. We stood there and regarded each other for some time. Whatever this fox creature was, she had very light tan fur, almost white, but not quite. She was about a head taller than an average Mobian, and her wings had disappeared without a trace.

Her blond hair went down to just above her shoulders. She wore a quiver of arrows, a pair of green gloves that went up to just below the elbows, a green hunters cap with a red feather in it, and a pair of green boots.

Suddenly she spoke. "Well, are you finished gawking at me?"

"Oh." I looked away as I felt my face grow a little warm. "I'm sorry. I've just never seen anyone dressed like you before. You're not from around here are you?"

The creature grinned. "That obvious, eh?"

I nodded sheepishly.

The fox's expression became serious again. "Could you please help my friend, she seems to be hurt."

I nodded and followed the fox as she went into the trees. "If you don't mind my asking, what are you exactly?" I asked.

"A wingfox. We are very rare species." By now, we had reached the spot where the wingfox had deposited her companion. She didn't appear to be seriously hurt but the tumble she had taken seemed to have knocked her out.

I surveyed the scene and then asked, "Do you have a place to stay for the night?"

The girl shook her head. "We were moving toward one of our bunkers in the marsh and we got separated from our companions three days ago. We've been trying to find them ever since."

"What's your name?"

"My name is Taylor, and if she's all right, then this is my friend Josephine, although everyone has always called her Arrow." She said.

I smiled "Nice to meet you and my name's Ebony." I looked around at the materials at hand. "I know a place where you can stay and it's not far from here. Then, if you want, I'll see if I can find someone to help you get to the marsh area once your friend wakes up. I'd do it myself, but I have to be somewhere very soon."

With some difficulty, we managed to get the other wingfox's two arms over our shoulders. This accomplished, we headed in the direction of Knothole, which, was just southeast of here.

It was a lot harder than if we had been carrying a normal mobian because unlike Taylor the other fox hadn't withdrawn her wings. Taylor gave me the brief explanation that wingfoxes can do that when they are not airborne. I told them they needed to meet Tails when we got to Knothole, as he would probably be very interested to learn about other flying foxes, and as I started seeing lights emanating from the edge of the village, I had the feeling that that would soon become a definite possibility.

To Be Continued...


	7. SBR&HP p3 Winged Archers

The Doom Crystal: Part 2, Stuck Between a Rock and a Very Hard Place, Section 3

A Sonic the Hedgehog Fanfic by find-the-lion

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog, Dr. Robotnik, Princess Sally, Bunnie Rabbot, Rotor Walrus, or Antoine D'Coolette. They are copyrighted by SEGA, DiC Productions, and Archie Comics.

However, Ebony Moon, Taylor Dovewing, Josephine (Arrow) Lisara, and Hank the Jackrabbit are all copyrighted June 7, 2005 to me as is this story which is also copyrighted June 7, 2005 to me.

Notes:

For those of you who didn't watch SatAM, Lower Mobius is the home of a group of refugees who settled in Robotropolis' sewers.

Ebony

We reached Knothole about the time the sun disappeared from between the trees. It was also right after Sonic and the others had returned, and I could see them just up ahead at the tree stump where Sonic liked to tell his adventures. He was there now, telling his amazed audience about what had transpired today. "…You guys remember Ebony right? Well it turns out we found her in Robotnik's lab. Snively was trying to get her to tell him where Knothole was. Well, she's as hard as nails you know and didn't have any intention of giving him that info. Anyway, just as we were crossing over the vent cover, she started screaming to Snively about how I had put a bomb under the place where they had her chained to the wall. I think she was trying to trick him into getting close to her, so she could work an escape on her own. While Snively was trying to figure out where the bomb was, we snuck in there and I gave Snively butt-kicking that he won't soon forget!…"

'My words exactly.' I thought to myself. But I didn't get angry and go over there to correct him. After all, I was better off without an inflated ego. If he wanted to boost his celebrity status, it didn't matter to me. After telling Taylor to stay with her friend, I walked over to where Sally was standing behind Sonic. "Hello again."

Sally turned around. "Oh, did you change your mind?" She asked.

"Kind of. We have a little emergency." I gestured to where Taylor was sitting next to her unconscious friend.

"What happened?" Sally asked curiously.

"I was on my way out and I found them being ambushed by SWAT-bots a little ways out from here." I explained.

Sally nodded. "Okay. I'll go get Doctor Quack. He'll know what to do." She turned away from the crowd entirely to walk toward the infirmary.

"I'm really sorry for leaving so abruptly this afternoon." I muttered as I trotted after her.

"Don't be. We forgive you." Sally paused as we reached the building toward which she was walking. "You're probably not getting very far tonight are you?" She opened the door.

"Now that you mention it, no." I answered.

"Okay. I'll see that these people have somewhere to stay tonight. In the mean time, the place you stayed in last time is still open, so if you'd like to stay, you're welcome to it." We were now walking hurriedly in the direction of the duck's office.

"I think I'll take you up on that. You're a lifesaver Sally. Thank you."

It was a few hours later and it was really dark now. I'd gotten the keys for my cabin and had just entered it, when I realized I would need to contact Hank so he would know what was happening. I put my shoulder bag on the small table and started rummaging around for my radio. There wasn't a chance Robotnik could understand a word if he picked up the signal on his airwaves. This little device was programmed to encode the signal as it went out, so only a radio exactly like mine could read it, and there were only a few besides the inventor of this device who had such a radio. I finally pulled out the device in question which was barely big enough to cover my hand.

I flipped the switch to the on position, turned the knob to Hank's frequency, and spoke into it. "Hank, you there?"

"Yeah I'm here." Came the reply.

"I'm starting to think that I'm not going to make it in time to go on the hunt, I've gotten a little side-tracked."

"What happened?"

"Well, it's kind of a long story." Boy was it ever. "Robotnik was involved, and then I ran into some other friends of mine, and then on top of that, I ran into some folks who got lost in the woods. One of them was hurt so I had to help them retreat to somewhere safe. I'm going to need some time to get them straightened out."

"I understand that you have problems Ebony, but I can't spare your skills, I'm the only other one who can track and I need all the help I can get. The tribe could be in danger."

I sighed. "Okay Hank, hang in there, I'll get there as fast as I can. Ebony out." I put the radio back in my shoulder bag.

I started a fire in the fireplace and began supper preparations. The hut I had been given had a small common area. A bed in the right corner closest to the door, a table with two chairs on the left wall, and a small kitchen area opposite the bed if one felt the need for cooking.

Even though Rosie's mess hall was very inviting, I felt like eating alone tonight. I took down a small pot and went outside. Then, I headed toward the well that provided drinking water. After I had filled the pot, I took it back to my hut and put it on to boil. I then reached into my shoulder bag and reached in an arm to search around in it. I finally pulled out a smaller bag of vegetables that an old friend had given my on a recent visit, a packet of home made cheese, and a small supply of dried meat. I put the meat in immediately and added the vegetables at random until a wonderful aroma began to fill the hut. Then, once the soup was read I pulled the pot off the stove and quickly found a pot holder for it to rest on.

After that, I took a bowl from above the fireplace and a spoon from my shoulder bag. It was a very simple meal. But it was also very nice to sit in a warm hut with hot soup rather then be out in a season where the nights were still prone to cold spells.

I had almost finished eating when there was a knock on my door. I put down the spoon and went to open it.

"Oh, hello Sally." I said when I saw who it was. "Would you like to come in?"

"Yes I would." Sally replied.

I opened the door and then closed it after her. "So, um, what's on your mind?" I asked as I pulled a chair over in front of the fire.

"I guess it's kind of a good thing that you were held up this time. I'd like to know how many villages there are left." Sally said as she sat down.

"Why?" I asked as I went back to the table to get another chair.

"Because all I've heard about other villages has come from refugees whose homes Robotnik has destroyed. I want to hear how many are still holding on."

I returned with the other chair and what remained of my soup. "Do you mind?" I asked, holding up the bowl. "You kind of caught me at supper."

Sally shook her head. "No I don't."

"It'll hurt to tell you this." I said as I sat down. "But counting Knothole there are only six remaining villages in this region."

"That's all of them?" Sally asked.

"Yes that's all of them." I confirmed, taking another mouthful of my dinner.

"But do you know about Lower Mobius?"

I gave a rueful laugh, finished a spoonful of soup, and answered, "Do I know about Lower Mobius? Yes I do. Heh, Robotnik rooted them out three weeks ago. I saw the wreckage as I was crossing Robotropolis heading east."

"Didn't you say there were some kinds of tribes near where you were headed?" Sally asked curiously.

"Oh yes, there are a lot of tribes out there in the plains. Swift being the most powerful, and then there is the Wolfpack, which tends to stay on the south side of the Great Forest. A couple of friends of mine were born to the Wolfpack." I was counting them off on the hand that wasn't holding the bowl and spoon. "Lets see, Tallgrass, Stripeskin, Coyote Pack. Those are some of the tribes I've seen. Of course there's Floating Island and some of the other continents but my geographical knowledge doesn't go that far." I finished my soup and got up to put the bowl and spoon on the table to deal with later. It was about then I thought of something I'd been meaning to ask.

"Oh yeah." I turned around to face her again. "Do you know of anyone who can run Taylor and Arrow down to the marshland? I had thought of doing it myself, but I just talked to my friend in Lilac and, he wants me there as soon as I can travel."

"Perhaps you should just take us to the beach. From there we could find our way back to our homeland and then another guide could take us to rejoin our companions." Taylor was standing in the doorway looking slightly embarrassed. I looked up at her in surprise. When did she get in here?

"I knocked and you didn't answer." Taylor said. "I came to tell you that Arrow is awake."

"Well, that's good news." I looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully. "Well, I am going to a village on the coastline." I said. "It's near a place known as Mariners Rock, are you familiar with it?"

"I could find our island from there." Taylor walked over to the chair that I had vacated and sat down. Seeing the change in seating arrangements, I sat down cross-legged on the floor and stared at the flames for a while.

After a few moments of silence in which we each thought our own thoughts, I suddenly sat upright, yawning dramatically and stretching my arms. "You know, we should probably be getting to bed. If you're coming with me, you're gonna want to get some sleep."

Sally and Taylor both seemed to take this as their cue to leave because they both stood up. "I'm sorry." Sally said apologetically. "If you're tired, go ahead." She started backing toward the door. "You did have kind of a long day. If I'd thought about it, I wouldn't have bothered you."

"No." I said, standing up to follow her. "It's okay. In fact, it's a nice change to have dinner guests." As they left the hut, I waved goodbye, and shut the door behind them. When it was shut, I heaved a long sigh of relief.

"Glad that's over." I said to myself as I leaned against the door. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say I was being interrogated… again." I yawned again as I moved to close up the fireplace for the night. I did feel exhausted. In fact, I found I was struggling to stay awake while pulling back the covers on the bed. Finally, I gave up and just collapsed on top of the covers I had just turned down… and…. Zzzz…..

Taylor

I went back to the hut that Arrow and I were sharing and lay down on the bed that was unoccupied.

Arrow had been resting in the other bed for some hours now. As previously reported, she was conscious again, and now she was sitting on the edge of the bed as though wanting to talk to me. "What is going to happen to us now Taylor?"

I sighed. "You will be back on our beloved isle."

Arrow frowned. "What? Surely you are coming with me."

I shook my head. "It is our custom, you know that."

"Oh no. You're not serious are you? Now I really wish your mother hadn't insisted on sending you to some nowhere. To tell the truth, I think her ladyship was becoming much too paranoid. We are almost grown now and perfectly able to take care of ourselves."

"Much as I dislike your attitude towards my mother, I have to agree with your feelings on her paranoia." I shut my eyes and thought back the day that had started my world spinning out of control. My species is native only to a large island known as the Firebird Isle, the homeland of the only phoenix proven to exist, and for the last five hundred years, it has been a part of the Kingdom of Acorn. Now, because of Robotnik, it is an autonomous region. My family, who now holds stewardship over the Isle, has a direct line to the ancient warrior chieftains that once ruled it, but now, mere lords and ladies are we. I suppose that's enough history for now. This particular day I speak of, I had returned with Arrow to the palace after a very successful hunting trip, only to hear some terrible news. My mother, the noble lady Aria, had received word from a scout recently arrived from the Emerald Islands that Robotnik's forces had been spotted off the coast of that region.

My mother decided that it would be for the best if I were hidden away in our recently built base in the marshland, from which we had originally hoped to fight back against the fat one. My older brother Cedric would stay behind as the heir. And so, with Arrow along as my companion, I was spirited away to the mainland. Unfortunately, no thanks to an ambush on our entourage, and some particularly bad weather three days ago, we had been separated and had gotten very lost. Now, with nothing but my ruby ring bearing the crest of the phoenix with the symbol of the acorn in the background and some personal belongings to tie me to my homeland, fortune had chosen to bind me to a total stranger, this Ebony Moon. By our custom, when someone saves you from mortal peril, you become indebted to them until it can be repaid. If I could somehow manage a feat of equal risk and valor, then the debt would be undone. I had not informed her of this as of yet, but I would have to soon, as it would be dishonorable to leave with this debt unpaid.

"How will I ever manage such a thing?" I thought to myself as I slowly dozed off, without saying more to Arrow.

Ebony

The next morning, I awoke to a day full of possibilities. First on my list was breakfast, which was dealt with in short order.

After an egg sandwich, I returned to my own hut to prepare for departure. It didn't take very long to get the place cleaned up and my stuff packed and I was about to go and tell Taylor and Arrow it was time to leave when there was a knock on my door. I went over to the door and opened it. As a smile spread across my face, I privately hoped my visitors were only stopping by to see us off. It was Sonic and Sally.

"Hi, you're just in time, we were about to leave." I stepped back to let them in.

"Ebony, we've been discussing your plans and we have decided that it would be best if we came with you." Sally said.

"You guys? No, it's dangerous. The fewer the better."

"We deal with danger all the time, and besides, if Robotnik is behind the Swift tribe's disappearance, then he needs to be dealt with." Sally argued.

I thought about her words. Perhaps lurking somewhere in the back of my mind, there was still some residual guilt for blowing them off yesterday. Perhaps I thought what she said made sense. Perhaps I just wanted them along. I'll never figure it out. But after considering for a few minutes, I relented. "Okay, anyone else coming or just you?"

Sally nodded. "Bunnie and Antoine." Sonic gave a rather annoyed look when the coyote's name was mentioned.

"But that's almost all of the leaders here." I said.

"Rotor's going to stay here." Sally said. "He's perfectly capable."

"Okay, if you're sure." With that, I stepped out between the two of them and went to collect Taylor and Arrow. They were ready to go, so we met up with Antoine and Bunnie just before we reached the edge of Knothole. Shortly afterward, the seven of us set out in a northwesterly direction. I sure hoped Hank wouldn't mind having guests.

To Be Continued…


	8. SBR&HP Enter: Hank

The Doom Crystal: Part 2, Stuck Between a Rock and a Very Hard Place Chapter 4

A Sonic the Hedgehog Fanfic by find-the-lion

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog, Princess Sally, Bunnie Rabbot, or Antoine D'Coolette. They are copyrighted by SEGA, DiC Productions, and Archie Comics.

However, Ebony Moon, Pepper. Taylor Dovewing, Josephine (Arrow) Lisara, and Hank the Jackrabbit, are all copyrighted June 7, 2005 to me as is this story which is also copyrighted June 7, 2005 to me.

Notes:

Please excuse the long gap between postings.

Ebony

"How long will it take to get there?" Sonic asked. It was about an hour after we had left Knothole, and I think he was a little annoyed because he couldn't run to where we were going. The reason for this being that I was the only one who knew the way, and I was walking.

"At the rate we're going, it should be evening when we arrive." I kept on walking.

"Evening! But that's a whole day we'll be traveling just to get there!" Sonic complained.

"Well, if you don't like it, you can go back to Knothole." I said calmly. Why oh why had I agreed to this? Sonic especially was getting impatient. The two wingfoxes had not said much, but there seemed to be something that was bothering Taylor, and it made me uncomfortable because I was thinking it might have something to do with our chosen route. Fortunately the others were mostly quiet as I led them through the woods, occasionally passing near one of the Great Forest's many streams or lakes. I knew the terrain around here by heart.

Soon the noonday sun was overhead. About that time, we reached a stream I was familiar with and I told them to fill they're canteens. "It flows from the mountains." I remarked, "Nothing poisonous has even come near it. Make sure you fill it up all the way, it's all the water you'll get until Lilac." Most of them took my advice, thankfully, so even though Antoine ran out a short while later, no one went thirsty.

After the halt, things went a little faster. Once we passed the remains of a burned out village, giving it a wide berth. It always makes me sad to see such places. Not only do they remind me of the fate of my own home, but especially these days, they tend to have terrible stories to tell.

A little while later, we passed near one of Robotnik's relay stations. We could hear the SWAT-bots moving around the area. At one point, we thought we saw one through the trees but it was only an illusion.

As the sun started sinking in the sky, the trail we were following began winding through areas where there were fewer trees. We were reaching the outskirts on the north end of the Great Forest. Lilac Point, the northernmost of the permanent settlements that I knew about, was an unusual place. Unlike most of the settlements that were in the Great Forest this one was completely underground. According to Hank, it had once been an installation where scientists had been measuring some sort of fault line under the ocean, which was literally right on your doorstep if you lived there. Before this it had been a cavern on a cliff face where the sea had worn away a depression in the rock. When the scientists moved in, they had constructed a barrier to keep the water out, and dug even deeper into the ground. It was already considered a small town by the time Robotnik came to power, but when that happened, they reacted quickly enough to remain invisible to the SWAT-bots. First of all, they replaced the barrier with a force field that would keep the water out entirely, and disguise the hollow in the cliff as just another section of rock, and then they ensured that no one could enter from the top of the cliff, unless they could find an entrance like the service elevator I was currently heading toward. I don't generally like elevators, especially when there are too many people in them, but this particular elevator was the best way in for a large group.

Finally I turned to the others. "We're almost there." I said, and then I turned and walked into the shadows. The murmuring I had heard behind me among the Freedom Fighters and the two wingfoxes had died when I spoke and it was showing no intention of restarting, as they were now focused on the area around us. We had passed out of the trees into a large clearing with a huge boulder at one end. Scattered around the clearing were several Lilac bushes, the namesake for this location.

"Unlike the folks in Lower Mobius, these people camouflaged they're entrance." I remarked as I pulled on a lever that had been camouflaged as a dead branch near the base of the bush nearest the rock. The others walked forward and looked curiously at the door that had swung open in the rock face. Beyond this door, could be seen the interior of the elevator. I beckoned them in as I walked over to the controls that would send us down to the residential area when activated.

I waited until they were all inside and then closed the door after them. I then hit a switch on a control panel next to the door. The elevator went down for about a minute and then stopped.

I opened the door and let the others get their first look at the subterranean portion of Lilac Point. On the other side of the cavern was an opening so large that if one didn't know that it was camouflaged, they would wonder how Robotnik had missed the place.

"How did they do it?" Sally asked in aw.

"They have a special generator that projects the image of the cliff over the hole. The residents can go out that way, but if they want to come back in, they have to use the route that we just took."

Suddenly, I heard a familiar voice. "Ebby! It's about time you showed your face!" Hank was walking toward us. He was a male jackrabbit somewhere in his mid-twenties. He was wearing a leather vest. He also wore a brown flat crowned hat with holes for his ears and a feather hanging down the back on a beaded string. He was rather good looking, except for a burn on his right shoulder. I had been partly responsible for that burn, and it still made me feel guilty. I had been about twelve when I first met Hank. I had been out camping when he had stumbled across my campsite on the trail of a friend of his who had gone missing. It turned out that his friend had been captured by a SWAT-bot patrol that was in the area. I had stubbornly tried to help Hank get his friend back and he had been grazed by one of the plasma bolts they had been shooting at us while trying to push me out of the line of fire.

"Good to see you again, Hank." I turned to the others. "Guys, this is Hank, the best tracker this side of Robotropolis."

"Oh, I don't know, I think your pretty good at it yourself." Hank put a hand on my shoulder in a friendly way and then he regarded the others who seemed to be startled at the familiarity we were showing each other. After his initial evaluation his manner became all business. His tribe's disappearance must have been wearing on him because I could see the concern in his expression. "You certainly have brought a few more than expected. What can they do?"

I ran over what I knew about each member in the party and then listed them for him. "Sonic can outrun just about anything, Sally's good with tactics, Bunnie's great with heavy objects and unfriendly characters. Taylor and Arrow; I haven't seen them in action and I probably won't either, because I'm supposed to see them to Mariners Rock, and Antoine; well, I'm not sure what he does."

Antoine assumed a very haughty pose and said, "I am ze royal guard, thanks to you very much."

Then Taylor said "I believe you will "See us in action." as you say. For we have decided to let our own affairs wait a little. I think your friend has much more urgent need of our assistance."

Hank had raised his eyebrows at what Antoine had said, and then he gave me a curious look. After a moment he looked back at the people I had brought with me, and after a moment his eyes fell on the princess. "Then I suppose it isn't just Sally is it, your highness?"

Sally looked surprised. "How did you know?" She asked.

"I noticed you cringe as your body guard stated his profession, and I've already heard about you from Ebony. She tells me that from what she's seen you are an excellent leader." He bowed lightly and then he stood up straight and turned toward the wall that was farthest from the cavern's opening. "Follow me. There are a few things you must know before we hit the plains tonight. You ought to at least know the details before we leave." He turned and made his way toward a cliff face that had several windows cut into it. I motioned for the others to follow as I took a position behind him.

It was almost depressing to be back here again, so soon. It had only been a few weeks ago that I had been here last, and when I had left at that time, I had hoped that on my return, I could say I had successfully rescued my family. But it wasn't to be, yet.

We had followed the rear cavern wall for some minutes now when we reached a small door. We went through this and then immediately up several flights of stairs. We finally reached and a stone corridor with a few doors going off on both sides. I recognized this place. These were the training areas where the locals went to learn various fighting styles and skills. We followed this hall for a minute or two and then turned left onto a hallway that had windows onto the cavern. Hank stopped for a moment and let the others take in the view. It was pretty impressive, but I had seen it many times. The various businesses that took up the south wall and the residences that inhabited the north wall were bathed in the dying sunlight. The sun was about half below the horizon now, only just at the point where it was safe to look at it. The old research buildings on the floor of the cavern had been reworked as a town center where people could congregate. Finally, he continued walking toward the other end of the balcony, opened a door and gestured for us to come inside. It was one of the planning rooms. In it, there were seats surrounding a large holographic generator. I sat down on one of the seats closest to the center of the room and the others followed suit.

Hank flipped a switch, and a three dimensional diagram of the Great Plains appeared with a few sections highlighted. "The section colored green which is closest to this village is the usual hunting ground of the Swift tribe." He explained. "For some unexplained reason, they have completely left it and disappeared into Tallgrass territory. The Swift tribe is the strongest and best able to defend the plains, if they are gone for good, then Robotnik has lost his opposition, and the area will fall. As you can see, this is more than just a personal favor."

Sally and her crew considered what he was saying but said nothing.

"There are some things you must remember while you're out there, or you'll be in big trouble. As long as you're with Ebony, or me, you're pretty safe. The tribes know us and won't attack if you're seen with the us. But if you wander off, there's a pretty good chance that you might run into trouble."

"Why?" Sonic asked.

"It's especially an issue because we're going into Tallgrass turf. But the Tallgrass tribe and the Coyote pack are known for having cannibalistic tendencies."

"You mean they eat their own kind?" Sally asked slowly.

"The Swift doesn't, but Tallgrass and Coyote Pack do, and then, only strangers." Hank spoke with the air of someone who has been familiar with this information for a long time. I simply sat back and let him take care of this. I had learned this lesson first hand already and didn't need to learn it again.

"The Wolfpack I've heard of, but the Coyote Pack, where does it stay generally?" Sally asked.

"It doesn't have a base, it's pretty nomadic; roams the plains, wars with other tribes, and pretty much causes trouble. Lately, what with Robotnik being around though, I get the feeling they may be mellowing out a bit. Ever since Chief Fang took charge, he's been adapting the tribe to be a bit more compatible with the current situation. I haven't had to rescue anyone being held for a sacrifice for over a year now. Anyway, we've covered the important stuff, except for one thing, did Ebony tell you about the power stone?"

Bunnie nodded. "She did."

"Well, that's the other reason we need to find the Swift tribe. They're shaman uses it to perform ceremonies, and I mean real ones, not the kind that doesn't do anything, the kind that could make a rain storm, turn warriors invincible, or even destroy this whole rock face. We have equipment here that hides its signature so it can't be traced. The tribe knows that, and that's why they generally stay in their established territory. If the power stone moves into an unprotected area then Robotnik will be able to get his hands on it, and then, well, who knows what might happen."

The projector turned off and Hank said "Okay, I think we've covered everything. Let's go."

Bunnie

We walked a fair piece before we stopped for the night. We had left the Great Forest behind a long time ago and had stopped by a stream that Hank and Ebony seemed to know, somewhere around midnight. We didn't go any farther because the moon was no longer visible in the sky, and there wouldn't be anymore light bright enough for him to see by until sunrise. We didn't bother with supper because it was so late, and slept under the stars that night.

The next day, things really got started. Ebony had gotten up first and was filling her water canteen from the stream when she spotted a set of footprints in the sand. Recognizing it, she had come back to where we were sleeping and woke us up. We were soon standing around the spot where she had first seen the prints, watching her and Hank as they examined the area and discussed what they could tell from the local evidence. "Hmm." Hank was kneeling over one of the footprints looking at it carefully. "It's a moccasin alright. Whoever this was had an accident recently. He's walking funny."

He stood and went to search the tall grass around the stream. Suddenly he held up a knife with a curved point, and then he pointed out some dried blood near where it had been found. "It looks like someone was either killed or wounded here." He examined the knife. "But I don't think that this is what did it. There's no blood on it." He put it in a pouch at his side. "I think it belonged to the victim. What puzzles me is this, small daggers are easy to carry, and they're prized possessions among the tribes. Why didn't whoever did this just take it?"

Ebony walked up just then and held up a metal object. "Because the attacker was a SWAT-bot." The thing she was holding was what was left of a metallic finger.

"Well, looks like our friend managed a thing or two before whatever happened to him." Hank remarked. He held up the knife again in the sunlight and smiled as though he had seen something to prove his assumption. He walked over to us. "Look at this." He said. "The blade is notched. It took some damage. I'd be surprised if it still cuts after this."

"The whole SWAT-bot's over there, half buried in the sand." Ebony gestured toward the stream. She turned and led us in that direction. The bot lay in a charred heap among some burned grasses. I couldn't tell where the fire had come from, but it had apparently destroyed the thing. There were some footprints leading off in another direction, but they all had the SWAT-bot tread, even I could tell that.

"Uh oh." Ebony muttered. "This doesn't look good."

Hank looked at the tracks and then at the charred robot and frowned. "I might say our friend had a torch if the whole bot wasn't burned, but a torch would only scorch a few parts of the thing before going out unless the robot was covered in lighter fluid. Something about this does seem rather foreboding."

"How so?" Sonic asked.

"Because if this person was a native, then the only one capable of something like this would be the shaman."

"You mean the one who had the power stone right?" Sally asked.

Hank nodded. "I think we need to see if there are any footprints leading back to the camp. If the shaman was wounded or captured, then we're in trouble."

"They wouldn't have left in the direction they did for a funeral march would they?" Ebony mused as we started searching for other prints. "I mean isn't the burial ground the other way, toward the Great Forest?"

Hank shook his head. "They aren't aware of any death." He though for a few moments before speaking again. "Let's go to the place where they were last seen to be and find the trail they took."

Ebony nodded and motioned for us to follow her. "The last time I came to visit Hank, I went out this way before I started on my trip. I saw the Swift tribe near the canyon bridge that's near here. This stream eventually joins the river at the bottom by a waterfall that's really close by." She was walking along the stream in the direction she had indicated and we followed after her.

"Is that why y'all called her out here? Because she saw them last?" I asked Hank, who had ended up in front of me.

"Yes." He answered me. "She was the last person to see them before they moved. It was another friend of mine who told me they'd seen the tribe actually moving, but when we tried to find the spot where they ended up, we couldn't find the trail. If we had, I wouldn't have had to call her back here."

"Ah see." I muttered.

It looked like he was going to go on when our group suddenly stopped. Apparently, Ebony had stopped up ahead, and was kneeling on the sandy bank get a closer look at something.

"What's the holdup Ebony?" Sonic had nearly run into her when she stopped. She started running downstream.

She ignored him, but turned back to look at Hank. "Perhaps our mystery friend got away after all. I've found some more tracks." Hank walked up to where she was and took a look at what she had found in the sand.

"Sure looks like it." He seemed almost relieved. "But we still need to find the Swift tribe." I moved up and extended my legs a little to get a better look. The two foxes were in front of me and I wouldn't have been able to see otherwise. It looked like a line of footprints had left the grasses and were following the stream in the direction we had been going.

"Hank." Ebony said. "These are the same prints all right. But look at the way the person's walking." She walked along a little bit and the jackrabbit followed her.

"It looks pretty normal to me… wait. That's right. This person was limping when we first found the tracks, so why isn't he now?"

"Let's get going." Ebony said. "We'll get our answers sooner or later."

Hank nodded and motioned that we follow them as they followed the tracks. We followed them at a walk for several hours and gradually the stream got bigger and bigger and faster and faster until it became a river and finally they reached the waterfall. By now, it was getting to be about noon.

"The old campsite is over there." Ebony pointed a little ways up the gorge. And there it was. It was a large cleared area filled with burned spots and rocks. The minute we reached it Hank began examining one half of the edge of the circle. Ebony began working on the other half.

Suddenly she cried out in triumph. "Here is where they left. They're headed straight for the border of Tallgrass territory, just like you said Hank."

Sonic looked at the ground where she pointed. "All I see is a bunch of trampled grass."

Ebony nodded. "I know, but if we follow it, then we're likely to find the Swift tribe."

Hank started following the trail careful not to step in it. "Keep behind me. It'll get a little dangerous for you folks after this point."

"Why is it getting so dangerous after zis?" Antoine asked. "In case you weren't listening during the briefing." Hank said. "The Tallgrass tribe has been known to eat strangers, and I did neglect to mention that all tribes are known to make a sacrifice once in a while."

"Well, I did, how do you say, snooze a bit." Antoine admitted.

Ebony shook her head. "I doubt you would want to hear what happened to me the first time I ran into the Tallgrass Tribe."

"What happened?" Bunnie asked.

"I don't know, it's not a pleasant subject, Antoine would probably faint if he heard about it." Ebony was wearing a somewhat mischievous expression.

"I will be having you knowing zat ze royail guard does not faint at every little zing. Zo, what happened?"

"Their shaman was trying to bring the rains. There had been a bit of a drought lately, and to them, I had shown up at exactly the right moment. They thought I'd been sent by the gods as a supply of fresh blood, if you take my meaning."

"Oh mah." I muttered.

"Yep, they had a knife about an inch from my chest before help arrived."

"You must have been scared out of your wits." Sally said.

"Are you kidding? I went way beyond scared before it was over." Ebony answered.

Hank interrupted the conversation by saying. "How could I forget? I was the "help" she's talking about. That's one of the biggest scares you can have out here."

Antoine was looking a little queasy.

Sonic noticed and laughed. "You were right Ebony, Ant couldn't take it."

We walked on, talking for some hours. Hank and Ebony didn't really need to pay much attention because the width of the trail was almost that of one of Robotnik's smaller highways. It was just before sundown when we reached a huge mesa. Both Ebony and Hank seemed to know it, and so we established camp at the base of it.

"I expect we'll find the rest of the tribe tomorrow." Hank said as we were getting ready to eat. "I hope they're all right."

Sonic was showing Taylor and Arrow how to roast hot dogs over the fire, while Sally looked on with interest, and Antoine with disgust. Sonic seemed to be losing patience, as neither of the two foxes knew what a hot dog was before he had presented them with the food. "It's easy." He said as he demonstrated with the hot dog he had speared on his roasting stick. I couldn't help laughing. I wouldn't put it past Sonic to have some chili and hotdog buns stowed away in his pack. Ebony on the other hand was looking out at the stars and was seemingly oblivious to what was happening at the campfire. I stood up and walked over to where she standing.

"Something the matter Ebby?" I asked her.

She turned to look at me and it seemed as though I had shaken her out of a moment of deep thought. She frowned as though trying to figure out how she could put her concern into words. "Bunnie, do you remember that incident that occurred the last time I left Knothole?"

"Not really sugah. I don't even think I know what your talking about."

"I was looking through some of my supplies when I found an old pair of gloves that I stopped wearing because they were too stained for me to wash out." She held up the pair of gloves she was talking about. "When I found them at the bottom of my bag, I noticed something very odd. What do you make of this?" She held up the gloves. They had obviously been very stained and the stuff that had stained them looked very much like blood in the firelight. Even more unusual, on closer inspection, I saw tiny pieces of something glittering on the bloodstained portions of the fabric. It looked almost like crystals of various colors and though they were only small fragments, it looked almost like they were growing out of the old blood on the cloth in what was roughly a star shape.

"That's pretty strange." I remarked.

"I stopped wearing these after I left Knothole because I had burned myself before leaving and then as I left the village, my hands started bleeding and I never could wash the stains out of these old things." She pulled off the clean white glove on her left hand and showed me the scar that had been seared into her fur.

"Hmm. That is rather creepy sugah."

"I still have yet to figure out why this is happening." Ebony sighed. "But I think when I get back from Aisra, I'm going to take another look at those gloves Sonic and I found at my old village. I might have Rotor run some chemical tests on them to see if he can't figure anything out." She now seemed to be talking more to herself then anyone else. "But other then out of my own clumsiness, they haven't really hurt anything…" She said quietly. She looked back at me and now she was smiling. "Come on Bunnie. Let's go eat. I'm starving."

"Okay sugah." I don't know why, but as we turned back toward the firelight, I suddenly felt nervous. I couldn't quite put a finger on why though. Everything seemed normal. As she reached the others and started her own supper preparations, I decided that perhaps I was worrying too much. "Ah must be tired from all the travelin' we've been doin'." I thought to myself. I shrugged it off and went to join the others.

To Be Continued…


End file.
